NA body decides to table ‘contempt of parliament bill’ soon

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges in its in-camera meeting on Tuesday decided to place a contempt of parliament bill on the floor of the House soon.

Though the meeting was open for the media but when the committee initiated the discussion on the draft of contempt of parliament bill, panel chairman Rana Qasim Noon turned the meeting into in-camera.

The committee took up the privileges motions of the National Assembly members besides discussion on draft of the contempt of parliament bill.

The meeting was attended by committee members Muhammad Sajjad, Chaudhry Armaghan Subhani, Ramesh Lal, Makhdoom Syed Sami-ul-Hassan Gillani and Sardar Riaz Mahmood Khan Mazari. MNAs Sheikh Rohail Asghar and Mohsin Dawar also attended the meeting as movers of the privilege motion.

Later, talking to media persons after the meeting, Rana Qasim Noon said the that the law of contempt of parliament is the need of the hour, adding that they were working on the bill for a long time to make the National Assembly effective. He said the draft will be prepared in a few days as consultations with legal experts have been done.

Rana Qasim Noon said that the law would apply to anyone who would insult parliament, and the existing “toothless” parliament would be strengthened.

Besides discussion on proposed contempt of parliament bill, the Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges took up the issue raised by Sheikh Rohale Asghar on the statement about Quaid-i-Azam by anchorperson Orya Maqbool Jan.

The committee pended the question of privilege with the direction that Orya Maqbool Jan should be blacked out by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra).

Pemra was ordered that all the programmes of Orya Maqbool Jan should be off-aired with a report to the committee. The committee also directed that a penalty should be imposed by the PTA, FIA and Pemra on the anchorperson besides taking action against him as per rules and regulations with a report to the committee within 15 days.

On a question of privilege raised by Dr Nafisa Shah about the Parliament Lodges maintenance, the committee directed the CDA chairman to resolve the issues and report within 15 days.