NA delays karo kari bills for the 3rd time
ISLAMABAD, April 13,2005: The National Assembly (NA) on April 12 deferred for the third time the clubbed identical bills submitted by MP Bhandara and Kashmala Tariq against karo kari, despite their insistence on referring the bills to the relevant House committee.
The members had sought amendments to the Pakistan Penal Code Conduct and the Code of Criminal Procedure to check the menace of honour killing in Pakistani society.
MP Bhandara expressed his surprise that the bill was once again put on the agenda despite the speaker’s ruling to refer it to the relevant committee as Shahid Akram Bhinder, minister of state for law, justice and human rights, did not oppose the bill when it was presented before the House.
The NA speaker, however, reminded Bhandara that Wasi Zafar, federal law minister, later opposed the bill on the grounds that the leader of the House did not formally clear the bill before its presentation.
Both MP Bhandara and Kashmala Tariq did not press the bill but asked for the bill to be referred to the committee as Sher Afgan, federal minister for parliamentary affairs, said the bill would be deferred until the next rota day.
Two other identical bills of Kunwar Khalid Younis and Begum Mehnaz Rafi seeking amendments to the Pakistan Citizenship Act, 1951, were also deferred.
Younis and Rafi said that many people were facing problems in obtaining Pakistani citizenship. They said that according to the law, any woman marrying a Pakistani man could obtain Pakistani citizenship but a man marrying a Pakistani woman could not, which was against basic human rights and Islamic laws.
Sher Afgan said that both bills needed improvement and the government would submit these bills itself after taking both the movers in confidence and meeting their concerns.
Earlier, Samia Raheel Qazi, Nayyar Bokhari and Mehnaz Rafi condemned the use of force against female students seeking their degrees by protesting against the OPF Girls College administration. Later, the speaker adjourned the House till today (Wednesday) apparently in protest of the pointing out of quorum by Manzoor Hussain Wasan of the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians. Wasan pointed out quorum when Sher Afgan was about to oppose Belum HusnainÂ’s bill seeking the establishment of a separate high court for the Islamabad territory.
The NA speaker said it was regretful that a member of the opposition had pointed out quorum on a private members day. “The private members day is basically meant for the opposition,” he said. The House could take up only 10 of the 93 agenda items for the day as most of the time of the nearly three hours and 45 minutes proceedings was consumed in points of orders.
Source: Daily Times
Date:4/13/2005
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