Govt to convene joint session to pass PIA bill

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to convene joint session of the parliament by getting the nod of National Assembly as it meets Monday afternoon for regular spring session to get the bill converting PIA into a limited company (ahead of privatisation) through, which was earlier passed in NA but rejected in the Senate.

According to the Order of the Day, “Minister-in-charge of cabinet secretariat Aftab Ahmed would move under sub rule (7) of rule 154 of the Rules of procedure and conduct of Business in the National Assembly 2007 that the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) Bill 2016 as passed by the National Assembly and rejected by the Senate, be referred to the joint sitting for consideration and passage.”

After the passage of motion as such, the joint session of the two houses would be summoned on shortest notice and the session of the lower house would be adjourned and again summoned along with the upper house for the joint sitting.

The lower house would also discuss the humiliating defeat of the Pakistan cricket team in Asia Cup held in Bangladesh. The lawmakers would blast the government over worst performance of Pakistan Cricket Team, causing grave concern amongst the cricket lovers in the country.

In a significant move, the National Assembly as follow up to Senate’s initiative would pass a bill to ensure publication of the text of the laws of Pakistan free from errors of preproduction, updating and printing (The publication o laws of Pakistan Bill, 2016).

The Senate under the chairmanship of Mian Raza Rabbani had first time in the national history got published a voluminous book reproducing all the laws that were in vogue in the country from 1836 to 2016 in alphabetical order for the benefit of the parliamentarians, lawyers, judges and the legal community.

Besides an amendment bill with regard to the Pakistan Engineering Council Act, 1976 (The Pakistan Engineering Council (Amendment) Bill, 2016), three reports pertaining to the legislation in finance, revenue, economic affairs, statistics and privatisation would also be part of the order of the day.