Post-legislative scrutiny: Government agrees to defer bill on Opposition's request

On the request of opposition, the government on Tuesday agreed to defer a bill pertaining to post-legislative scrutiny.

State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan said that it is an important piece of legislation and the government has no objection if the opposition wants to give its input on it, adding it may be presented later.

The opposition lawmakers in National Assembly endorsed the bill on post-legislative scrutiny, saying it will be a step forward in right direction.

MNA Riaz Fatyana of PTI said, "There is no mechanism for post-legislative scrutiny, due to which we all should do legislation to strengthen our law." He said that the total number of laws in Pakistan is 740, of which rules of 68 laws have not been made so far. The Transfer of Evacuee Land (Katchi Abadi) (Amendment) Act, 2020, The Constitution (Amendment) Act, 2020, The Constitution (Amendment) Act, 2020, The Marine Insurance (Amendment) Act, 2020, and The National University of Technology (Amendment) Act, 2020 were laid in the House.

Two bills including the Foreign Exchange (Prevention of Payments) (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the National Skills University Islamabad (Amendment) Bill, 2020 were rejected by the House after voice voting. Three other bills appearing on the agenda including the Trade Organizations (Amendment) Bill, 2020, the Institute for Bio-resources Research Bill, 2020 and the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (Articles 1, 51, 59, 106, 175A, 198 and 218) were deferred.

A total of 50 other bills appearing on the agenda on the name of same three lawmakers were also deferred as the chair did not allow clubbing them together after objections were raised by the opposition lawmakers. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan said that the government has no plan to shut down the land customs station of National Logistic Cell (NLC) Dry Port located in Hyderabad.

Responding to a calling attention notice moved by Sabir Hussain Kaim Khani, he categorically rejected reports that Hyderabad Dry Port is being shut down, saying the Dry Port caters to the areas of interior Sindh including Larkana, Sukkur and Jacobabad.

He said the dry port witnessed an increase of business activity by over one hundred percent during the last one year.

"The economic activity has gone up by 104 percent reaching to Rs 841 million during the last year as compared to corresponding year when it stood at Rs413 million," he said while pointing out that the business activities at the NLC dry port have gained momentum recently. The House was adjourned to meet again on Wednesday at 11:00am.