Five bills introduced in the Senate

ISLAMABAD: As many as five different bills introduced in the upper house on Monday including the anti money laundering bill, Negotiable instrument act 1881, companies act, 2017, the criminal laws bill 2019 and bill to amend the constitution of Pakistan, 1973.

The bills were presented by Senator Muhammad Ateeq Shaikh, Senator Ghous Muhammad Khan Niazi and Senator Sherry Rehman, respectively in the house.

Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani referred the all bills to the concerned standing committees for further deliberations.

Senator Ateeq Shaikh sought an amendment through the bill in the negotiable instruments act, 1881.

Giving the reasons to amend the act, the senator said that toothless prevailing laws encourage the individuals to commit cheque fraud and the criminals do not bother about the consequences of the fraud due to the less punishment for the crime.

The insertion of new provisions in the act aims at addressing the issues of undue delay in the finality of cheque dishonor cases.

Senator Sherry Rehman presenting the bill to amend the article 84 of the constitution of Pakistan 1973, regarding supplementary grants said that the practice of authorizing supplementary budgets or excess budgets without prior assent from the parliament is being used randomly, increasingly and frequently in Pakistan.

She said that this practice is against the well established principles of annual budget appropriation and procedure authorized by the parliament, adding uncertainty to economic planning and oversight in the country.

She said that this not only create the audit disparity due to expenditures in excess but also by pass the crucial principle of prior approval from parliament.

Federal Minister for parliamentary affairs however opposed the bill saying that the since budget making is a prerogative of the national assembly therefore the senate is not an appropriate forum to move such a bill.

He also suggested the chairman senate to seek an opinion from ministry of finance on the issue before moving ahead.

Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani however after seeking majority vote on the bill rejected Minster’s objection and send the bill to the finance committee for further deliberations.