The Senate on Wednesday passed two government bills including the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Bill, 2020 amid strong opposition from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), which demanded death sentence for the perpetrators of rape and murder of children.

During Senate session, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Swati, on behalf of Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari, presented the bill, which had been already passed by the relevant Senate standing committee. At the voting stage, PML-N leader Javed Abbasi, Sirajul Haq and Mushtaq Ahmed from the JI and Faiz Muhammad from the JUI-F opposed the bill in its present form and recommended that the necessary amendments should be introduced in the bill to award death sentence to the perpetrators of rape and murder of the children instead of life sentence, proposed in the bill.

"I am not against this bill. This bill is significant in the sense that it takes on those involved in child abuse. But this bill proposes life sentence for anyone found involved in raping and murdering a child. The only punishment for a rapist and child killer should be death sentence," Abbasi said.

His viewpoint was supported by the JI and the JUI-F senators. The parliamentary affairs minister went to the seat of Sirajul Haq to convince him not to oppose the bill.

"The parliamentary affairs minister came to me. He has requested not to oppose the bill and let it pass from Senate. I will not oppose this bill if the parliamentary affairs minister assures us that he would support the amendment regarding death sentence in the bill later, once the bill is passed."

Taking the floor, the parliamentary affairs minister assured that the treasury benches would fully support the amendment regarding death penalty in the bill for rapist and child killers.

Following his assurance, Haq announced not to oppose the bill but did not vote for it either. Briefing the Senate on the bill, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said the bill recommended all those punishments for a killer that were laid down in Pakistan's laws including death sentence and other sentences based on his/her offences.

The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) supported the bill.

"This is a vital bill against child abuse and it should be passed," Farooq Naek from the PPP said. The House then passed the bill through voice vote. Named after Zainab, a seven-year-old child from Kasur, who was abducted, raped and murdered in January 20I8, the bill seeks to "enact special laws to provide a speedy system of alerts, responses, recoveries, investigations, trials and rehabilitation to prevent and curb criminal activities against the children-and - to ensure harmonization and cohesion in the workings of the new agencies and institutions established for the protection of children and already existing mechanisms within this field."

The bill originally had the jurisdiction over the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), which was later extended to entire Pakistan. The National Assembly has already passed the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act, 2020 which now seeks final assent from President Arif Alvi following which it would become a law.

The University of Islamabad Bill, 2020 was another bill passed by the Senate, presented by Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood. "The University of Islamabad, a private sector entity, is a project of Foundation for Advancement of Innovation, Research and Education (FAIRE) duly registered with Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) as a non-profit organization for establishing a new university at Murree Expressway, Islamabad," the bill reads.

Later, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi briefed the Senate on Pakistan's perspective regarding the recent signed United States-Taliban Peace Agreement.

"Pakistan never was, never is, and never will be part of this agreement. We are not a signatory to it. Pakistan's role is of a facilitator for bringing peace in Afghanistan, something that all the stakeholders want. We are ready to extend our utmost cooperation for this purpose."

The foreign minister said all the stakeholders needed to shoulder the burden of responsibility for playing their part for a peaceful Afghanistan. "Pakistan alone is neither responsible nor should it be expected of us alone to bring peace in Afghanistan. It's a shared responsibility of all the stakeholders and all of them have to come forward for this purpose." The Senate session has been prorogued.