Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Monday blocked an apparent move of the government to pass two important pieces of legislations - the Tax Laws (Amendment) Bill 2012 and the Constitution (23rd Amendment) Bill, 2012, pointing out the lack of quorum in the House.
Lack of quorum restricted the government to take up the two important bills on the agenda for passage, forcing the panel of chairman to adjourn the House for today (Tuesday). The two bills - the Tax Laws (Amendment) Bill 2012, which aimed at bringing 0.3 million undocumented potential persons into the tax net by offering one time amnesty for legalisation of undisclosed assets and income, and the Constitution (23rd Amendment) Bill, 2012 which is designed to create a new province of Bahawalpur-Junoobi Punjab out of the existing Punjab, have already been passed by the Senate.
When the House was debating the tragic Badami Bagh incident being criticised by many members as incompetence of the Punjab government, the PML-N lawmakers were leaving the house one by one for an apparent meeting chaired by Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to chalk out strategy for blocking the bills.
Later, rejoining the House, the PML-N's strategy unfolded when the House took up the portion of the agenda carrying legislative business and Law Minister Farooq H Naek had moved the first bill - the Anti-Terrorism (Second Amendment) Bill, 2013 for approval, spontaneously the PML-N's Anusha Rehman pointed out the quorum after her party's lawmakers had once again left the House.
Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor, the panel of chairman, who was presiding over the house at the time, ordered for counting of the members but he had to adjourn the house after an obvious lack of quorum and hence leaving no chance for the government to pass the two important bills along with three others of the Monday's session. Both the bills are now expected to be tabled in the House tomorrow (Wednesday) as Tuesday will be a private members' day.
The other bills, which were part of the agenda and could not be taken included the Cost and Management Accountants (Amendment) Bill, 2013], the Surveying and Mapping Bill, 2013 and the Anti-terrorism (Second Amendment) Bill, 2013. Earlier, Law Minister Farooq H Naek also presented before the House the Medical and Dental Council (Amendment) Ordinance‚ 2013.