A parliamentary panel on Wednesday directed the Ministry of Law and Justice to prepare a draft bill on premarital blood screening for thalassaemia in three weeks. The committee was jointly chaired by Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi and Senator Hafiz Hamdullah here at the Parliament House.
The joint meeting of the Senate Standing Committees on Law and Justice and Religious Affairs & Inter-faith Harmony directed the Ministry Law and Justice to prepare a draft bill on premarital blood screening for thalassaemia and submit to the committee in co-ordination with the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Inter-faith Harmony.
Senator Chaudhry Tanveer Khan's bill titled 'The Premarital Blood Screening (Family Laws Amendment) Bill, 2016' has been under consideration by the joint committee. The meeting in its previous meeting on the bill had asked for an inter-ministerial meeting of Ministries of Law, Human Rights, Health, and Religious Affairs to finalise the draft bill which is, though, initially designed for all diseases, will now deal with only thalassaemia. Minister of National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar informed the committee members that a similar bill on thalassaemia which covers premarital blood screening has recently been passed by the National Assembly as a private member bill and has been referred to the Upper House.
The minister suggested that the provision intended by Senator Tanveer can be incorporated as amendments in that bill when it comes to the Senate House and subsequently to the committee. The joint committee, however, asked the ministry to prepare a draft which will be considered by the committee.