National Assembly passes three bills

The National Assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed three bills-'Anti-Dumping Duties (Amendment) Bill, 2009, The Banks (Nationalisation) (Amendment) Bill, 2010 and The Islamabad Consumer Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2010' to empower an existing tribunal to entertain appeals against the decision of the NTC, delete the name of HBFC from Act of 1974 and to curb profiteering, hoarding and black marketing.
Federal Minister for Religious Affairs tabled two Bills--'Anti-Dumping Duties (Amendment) Bill, 2009 and The Banks (Nationalisation) (Amendment) Bill, 2010--and Law Minster Maula Baksh Chandio moved The Islamabad Consumer Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2010'. The Bills were passed without any opposition.
According to Anti-Dumping Bill, Amendment of section 64 for sub-section (1) shall be substituted, namely: "(a) establish an Appellate Tribunal consisting of three persons, one of such persons being a retired judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, who shall also be its Chairman and two persons of known integrity having experience and expertise in the fields of economics, international trade related issues and matters related to customs law and practice; or (b) Designate an existing Tribunal to be the Appellate Tribunal for the purposes of this Ordinance.
Exp1anation,- For the purpose of sub-section (1), the expression "existing Tribunal" means any Tribunal established by the Federal Government under any law for the time being in force."; and (b) Sub-section (3) shall be omitted."
The objects and reason of the Bill says that it is need to empower an existing tribunal to entertain appeals against the decisions of the National Tariff Commission (NTC). This amendment will give the Federal Government the policy space to either empower an existing tribunal to hear appeals against the NTC or appoint a serving or retired, or is qualified to be, a judge of Supreme Court as the head of the Tribunal who may be assisted by two experts as and when an appeal is filed.
According to objects and reasons of Banks (Nationalisation (Amendment) Bill, 2010, consequent upon non-agreement of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to classify House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC) as a Bank or DFI and transfer of administration/regulation of Non Banking Finance Companies to Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), the provisions of the Banks (Nationalisation) Act, 1974 may not be applied to HBFC. The Federal Government will have to notify HBFC as a non-bank finance company (NBFC) under clause (b) of section 282 of Companies Ordinance, 1984. Accordingly, the name of HBFC is required to be deleted from Banks (Nationalisation) Act, 1974.
Islamabad Consumer Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2010 is an insertion of new section 8A, Act Ill of 1995 namely:- "8A. Power to try summarily.-(l) Without prejudice to the foregoing provisions and in addition to the powers exercisable by the Authority' where any right of a consumer is infringed or contravened by way of profiteering, hoarding, black-marketing, adulteration of food items, selling of expired items of food and other item unfit, for human consumption or charging for goods and services in excess of the prices fixed by the competent authority under any law for the time being in force, it shall be tried by a special Magistrate appointed under section 14A of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898, (Act VI of. 1898) in a summary manner as provided in sections 262 to 265 of the said Code:
(2) If a Special Magistrate has reason to believe that any infringement or contravention of any right of consumer as stated in sub-section (1) punishable under this Act has been committed by any person, he may enter the place or premises where the infringement or contravention has been committed and try the same on the spot and punish the defaulter which may extend to six months or fine which may extend to fifty thousand rupees or with both.
3. Any person aggrieved by the order of Special Magistrate may, within fifteen days prefer an appeal to the Authority." The objects and reasons of the Bill stated that Special Magistrates be appointed who would summarily try the cases of profiteering, hoarding, black-marketing, adulteration, selling of expired items of food and other item unfit for human consumption or charging excess of the prices fixed by the / competent authority.