ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly, Monday, passed four bills including, “The Privatization Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2024” and “The Establishment of Telecommunication Appellate Tribunal Bill, 2024” with majority, amid protests from the opposition members.
According to above-mentioned two bills, the government would establish two tribunals, the Privatisation Appellate Tribunal and Telecommunication Appellate Tribunal, separately to deal with the cases relating to privatisation and electronic crimes respectively.
The National Assembly also passed two other bills; “The Apostille Bill, 2024”and “The Cannabis Control and Regulatory Authority Bill, 2024” with a majority.
‘PC (Amendment) Bill, 2024’ to be presented in NA today
According to “The Privatization Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2024”, the Privatisation Appellate Tribunal would be constituted under this legislation. For this purpose, the Privatisation Commission Act, 2000 will be amended.
According to clause-2(2) of the bill, “The Appellate Tribunal, for the purposes of hearing and deciding civil and criminal matters under this Act, have the same powers as are vested in a civil court.”
The tribunal has the powers of; “(a) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining his on oath, (b) requiring the discovery and production of documents and material objects, (c) receiving evidence on affidavits, (d) issuing commissions for examination of witnesses and documents.”
The Appellate Tribunal would consist of a chairperson, one technical member and one judicial member. A retired judge of the Supreme Court shall be appointed as chairperson of the tribunal.
The term of office of the chairman and members of the tribunal shall be three years. The age of the members of the tribunal shall not exceed 65 years. The purpose of the tribunal’s work is to complete the privatisation process in a fair and transparent manner.
The Clause-3 of the bill further described as “Any person aggrieved by an order of the Appellate Tribunal may within sixty days thereof prefer an appeal to the Supreme Court.”
The tribunal shall have the exclusive power of Civil Court.
The amendments in Act will ensure timely resolution of privitisation-related disputes, thus, resulting in expeditious closure of privatisation transactions and meeting the mandate set forth in the Act.
According to “The Establishment of Telecommuni-cation Appellate Tribunal Bill, 2024”, amendments have been made in the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act, 2016.
According to the legislation, cases related to electronic crimes will be heard by Pakistan Telecommunication Appellate Tribunal instead of high courts. The Appellate Tribunal will consist of three members. A retired judge of the high court or having 15 years of legal experience will be the chairperson of the Tribunal and two other members.
The two members would have professional degrees relating to electrical, electronics, telecommunications, finance, commerce, information and communication technology or other related subjects and experience of five years etc.
According to proposed legislation, “A person aggrieved by any decision or order of the Authority, on the ground that it is contrary to the provisions of this legislation, may, within thirty days of the receipt of such decision or order, prefer an appeal to the Tribunal and the Tribunal shall decide such appeal within ninety days.
The federal government will have the power to increase or decrease the number of tribunals. The tribunal will have judicial powers.
The Tribunal will have power to summon any person and to receive documents. The term of office of the Chairman and members of the Tribunal shall be for four years. The age of the members of the Tribunal shall not exceed 64 years. The relevant case under hearing in any court will be transferred to the tribunal within one month. An appeal against the decision of the tribunal can be filed in the Supreme Court within 60 days.
The establishment of the Tribunal will hold to less the burden of the High Courts with regard to adjudication of the technical matters.
According to objects and reasons of “The Apostille Bill, 2024”, to simplify the authentication process of public documents to be used abroad by abolishing the traditional and cumbersome legalisation process and replacing it with a single formality, thus, significantly reducing the requirements to visit embassies/con-sulates for overseas Pakistanis.
The purpose of “The Cannabis Control and Regulatory Authority Bill, 2024” is to regulate the cultivation of cannabis plant, extraction, refining, manufacturing and sale of derivatives of the plant for medical and industrial use.
The reports relevant to the National Commission on the Rights of Child for the year 2023-24, accounts of the federal for audit year 2023-24 And the report of the board of director of the State Bank of Pakistan on the state of Economy for the year 2023-24.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024