ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat approved two government bills related to National Archives Department.

The committee approved, “The National Archives (Amendment) Bill, 2023” and “The Archive Material (Amendment) Bill, 2023.”

The committee met with MNA Kishwer Zahra in the chair at the Parliament House on Thursday.

The additional secretary Cabinet Division apprised the committee in consequence to the judgement of the Apex Court in the Mustafa Impex case, the words “federal government” had been replaced with “appropriate authorities” in National Archives and the Archival Material (Preservation and Export) Acts. He apprised that both the bills relate to defining the authority for the appointment of Director General National Archives, defining authority for declaring jurisdiction in case of litigation and declaration of official record, preservation and export of archival material.

Later, the committee was briefed by the representative of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) regarding the relief and rehabilitation of flood affectees and the preparedness of the Authority to tackle floods/urban flooding during the current monsoon season. He apprised the committee that appropriate measures had been adopted in coordination with provincial disaster management authorities in that regard.

He informed the committee that ex-gratia assistance to the tune of more than Rs1 billion had been disbursed through provincial departments and 502 cases were pending which would be cleared subject to provision of details by the affectees.

The committee directed the NDMA to coordinate with provincial governments for early clearance of the outstanding cases.

The committee was apprised by the chairman OGRA that the rent of gas meters from Rs50 to Rs500 was not increased by the OGRA and the same was the decision of the federal government.

The director general NEPRA briefed the committee that the inclusion of a radio fee and the enhancement of TV fee in electricity bills would be the government’s decision. He said that authority does not support using electricity bills for tax collection.

The meeting was attended Muhammad Sajjad, Shahnaz Saleem Malik, Mussarat Rafiq Mahesar, Rana Iradat Sharif Khan, Additional Secretary Cabinet Division, and senior officers of the concerned departments.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023