Despite stiff resistance by the treasury, the joint opposition in Senate on Monday managed to sail 'The Rehabilitation and Restructuring of Corporate Entities (the Corporate Rehabilitation Bill, 2015)' through the House. Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid opposed the move by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Saleem Mandviwalla to put the bill to be taken into consideration at once.
But, after the voice vote, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani went for head count and found that against the government's 12 votes, joint opposition had 30 votes in favour of the piece of legislation. Earlier, the Senate commenced its 257th session amid government-opposition stand-off in the National Assembly.
The chair allowed the mover and some other members to speak on the bill and afterwards when it was taken up for passage or otherwise, the treasury did not offer much resistance; hence it sailed through the House. However, it is needless to say that the opposition's success will be short-lived, as there is hardly any chance of the bill getting passed by the National Assembly where the government enjoys a two-third majority.
The minister contended the government is bringing its own bill ie 'The Corporate Restructuring Bill' next week, insisting Mandviwalla's bill did not enjoy consensus support of the banking and business community and that was why he could not get his bill approved while he was minister for finance and the reason was lack of consensus.
He claimed the bill is essentially based on the US bankruptcy law, whereas the dynamics for business and corporate sector are entirely different in Pakistan. Senator Mandviwalla defended the bill, saying the initiative is aimed at bringing about improvement in corporate sector, as already 450 textile mills and 8,500 industrial units stand closed. "The piece of legislation will help revive corporate sector and create job opportunities," he noted.
Before the bill was finally put for adoption or otherwise, PML-N's Nehal Hashmi suddenly stood up to urge for voting on clause 38 of the bill, but the Chair ordered head count, forcing PPP Parliamentary Leader Taj Haider to rush out to fetch some opposition senators who had exited from the House, minutes before Senator Hashmi stood up. The count result again was in favour of the opposition benches by 25 to 21 votes.
PPP Senators Taj Haider and Rehman Malik spoke in favour of the bill while independent Senator Mohsin Leghari feared the provisions in the bill would give undue leverage to the borrower, enjoying the option of seeking court's intervention. He called for more consultations on the bill instead of seeking its adoption.
The law minister feared that pieces of legislation by Senators Karim Khawaja and Sassui Palijo of PPP could lead to a number of controversies and complications as well, as already Article 251 of the Constitution clearly states that besides Urdu, the languages spoken in the provinces would be national languages. Senator Karim moved the bill on behalf of 27 senators, whereas Palijo introduced the bill with support of PPP Senator Mukhtar Dhamrah.
Senator Karim's bill, 'The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2016,' seeks granting regional languages, including Sindhi, Brahui, Balochi and Saraiki the status of national languages at par with Urdu. On the other hand, Sassui's bill wants four major provincial languages are given status of national language. Both bills have been referred to the committee concerned for deliberations and report by the chair.