Illegal immigrants: National Assembly body flays authorities for lack of action

National Assembly's Standing Committee on Interior on Monday censured concerned authorities for lack of action against illegal immigrants, while discussing pros and cons of a bill moved by female lawmakers demanding citizenship for foreigner spouse of women, which they said was a move to win equal rights for women.
Begum Shehnaz Sheikh, Dr Donia Aziz and Ms Marvi Memon are among the movers of 'The Pakistan Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2008', which got some support from members of the committee as well. "It is simply discrimination with women," was the shared thought of the female members as well as male members of the committee except Muhammad Ijaz Virk of PPP who opined that the matter should be referred to Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) for scholarly advice.
However, the committee which met with Abdul Qadir Patel in the chair for the first time granted more time to Secretary Interior to have a comparative study on the prevailing laws on the subject in the neighbouring countries. Meanwhile, Qamar Zaman Chaudhry apprised the committee that to deal with the issue of illegal immigrants the cabinet had constituted a committee comprising Ministers of Interior, Defence and Law and Justice to come up with a strategy.
The committee is scheduled to meet on January 20, he added. The Secretary told the Committee that a similar bill had been rejected by the then standing committee on interior in 2005, keeping in view the security situation and other issues like blanket cover to foreigners including spies both male and female etc.
Ms Bushra Gohar of ANP disagreed with the apprehensions mentioned by the secretary and said that the citizenship to foreigner, as is in many other countries of the world, should be linked to stringent procedure. The committee did not take up the important piece of legislation due to technical lacunas. The Ministry of Interior had moved in the National Assembly and Senate "The Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2009". The Chairman of the Committee asked the Secretary to withdraw one bill so that the committee could deliberate upon the matter.