The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Tuesday unanimously passed un-attended orphans (rehabilitation and welfare) act, 2013 with some amendments in order to project rights and ensure provisions of basic rights to un-attended orphans and unknown parentage children in the country. The committee which met with Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi in the chair also passed "The Patents (Amendment) Bill 2015 introduced in the Senate on January 1, 2016.
The un-attended orphans (Rehabilitation and welfare) bill, 2013 was introduced by Senator Karim Ahmed Khawaja. Khawaja said that the un-attended orphans and unknown parentage children in Pakistan are facing many problems. Our society is also facing problems due to non provision of facilities like education, health and security of life to such children, he said.
He said that the legislation was aimed to protect the rights and provision of facilities to such children and launch of any welfare scheme for them. Secretary Ministry of Law and former Justice Raza Khan said that the bill moved by Senator Karim Ahmed Khawaja is the need of the hour but a similar kind of more comprehensive bill entitled "Children Protection bill" would be finalised in the next two months and would be submitted in the National Assembly therefore he requested the committee to wait for the same bill. He said that the ICT Child protection bill would not only provide protection to the unattended orphans but to the other children as well who need protection and care.
Senator Saeed Ghani said that the committee will discuss the child protection act when the National Assembly refers it to the committee but the issue of unattended children is very sensitive therefore there is no need to wait for the same bill and the committee should pass the bill. Aitzaz Ahsan said that the rehabilitation of unattended children was the responsibility of the state therefore government need to take effective measures in this regard.
Senator Muhammad Ali Safe while supporting the bill said that Pakistan is the signatory of international convention related to child rights therefore there is no need to delay this bill. Legal Consultant for Human Rights Sharafat A. Chaudhry informed the Senate Committee that the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Child Protection Bill proposed by the Ministry of Human Rights is under review of the Law Reform Committee constituted by the Prime Minister.
Tahir Shamshad president NESPAK and convenor of the multi-disciplinary taskforce, which consists of the representatives of PEC, NDMA, Ministry of Housing and works and CDA, constituted by the standing committee while briefing the committee regarding implantation mechanism of building code said that the whole country is on the fault line which causes earthquake. Karachi city is more dangerous in this regard and only one Tehsil located at the border of Bahawalpur is not located on the fault line, he said.
He said that Margalla Hills are also located on the fault line but the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has not yet conducted ground seismic study. He said that following of three procedures is recommended for administration and implementation of the Building Code of Pakistan (BCP)-Seismic provisions 2007. The recommendation may be adopted first by CDA as a model which shall be extended later on to ICT and other parts of the country.
He said that the recommendation includes the incorporation of BCP in existing by laws of the development authorities, creation of Structural Safety Cell (SSC) within the building control section of development authorities and formulation of Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) for design and construction activities to be adopted by SSC and its parent authority.
The task force has sent the proposal to the legal consultant and they would soon formulate a proposal in the bill which will be sent to Ministry for vetting. Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi directed Ministry of Law and Justice to vet the propose bill and present it in the committee in order to give legal cover to the implementation of building code.