The Senate Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs in its report presented to the House on Thursday unanimously recommended the House not to pass a private member bill seeking a time-bound provision in the Constitution to abolish riba or interest in whatever forms or names it exists in Pakistan.
The report of the committee was presented in the House by its chairman Senator Kazim Khan. The mover of the Bill, Senator Hafiz Rashid Ahmed stated in the bill that Pakistan, being an Islamic state and Islam as its religion, provided in Article 2 of the Constitution. Similarly, Article 2A has also made the Objective Resolution as substantive part of the Constitution as well as clause (1) of Article 227 also provides Islamisation of laws in conformity with the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah, but still state could not abolish riba or interest, which is the negation of Islam and had given birth to worst exploitation by banks and other institutions established by the state.
The bill stressed the need for providing a time-bound provision in the Constitution to abolish riba or interest in whatever forms or names it exists in the country. However, the committee reported that Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs informed the committee that the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court in its judgement dated June 24, 2002 on a review petition No 1 of 2000 filed by UBL remanded the cases pertaining to riba and interest for determination by the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) afresh. Now these cases are pending before the FSC.
The Chairman of the Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Parliamentary affairs also presented report of the committee on the Bill to define powers, immunities and privileges of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) and its members (The Parliament and its Members) Privileges Bill, 2003.
The committee reported to the House that while going through detailed deliberations held in various meetings and on the basis of the recommendations of the sub-committee headed by S M Safar opposed the codification of law on the subject and recommended that the private member Bill as introduced by Chaudhry Anwar Bhinder in the Senate may not be passed.
Meanwhile, the same committee also unanimously recommended to the House in its report, presented by Senator Kazim Khan, to pass the bill further to amend the Specific Relief Act, 1877 (The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, 2008). Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar also presented in the House the Annual Report of the Central Board of Directors of State Bank of Pakistan on the state of Pakistan's Economy along with the statistical Supplement for the year 2009-2010, as required under section 9A (f) of the State Bank of Pakistan Act, 1956.