ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly passed the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2024, the Pakistan Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2024, the Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Bill, 2025 Bill and six other bills with ease towards the end of proceedings on Friday.
Other bills passed by the National Assembly include Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (Amendment) Bill, 2024; the Extradition (Amendment) Bill, 2025; Pakistan the Naturalization (Amendment) Bill, 2024; the Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2025; the Anti Dumping Duties (Amendment) Bill, 2025 and the Trade Organizations (Second Amendment) Bill, 2025.
The Income Tax Amendment Bill, 2024 has been passed to remove difficulties faced by taxpayers in implementation of higher tax rates on income from federal government securities on the basis of Advance-to Deposit Ratio (ADR).
The rate of tax for banking company will be 44 percent for tax year 2025, 43 percent for year 2026 and 42 percent for tax year 2027 and onward.
For small company, there will be flat tax rate of 20 percent and for any other company it will be 29 percent for the year 2025 onward.
The same bill could not be passed on Thursday after the motion tabled by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb for the purpose was scuttled by the opposition by 67 to 32 votes after heads count.
However, the government learning from Thursday’s lesson was well-prepared on Friday by ensuring presence of sufficient members on the treasury benches and getting nine bills passed by the House without any obstacle.
The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2025 will provide for an insertion of section 15-A in the Civil Servants Act, 1973 according to which the declaration of assets of a Civil Servant of BS-17 and above, his spouse and dependent children, including domestic and foreign assets and liabilities, as may be prescribed, shall be digitally filed with the Federal Board of Revenue and same shall be publicly available, through Federal Board of Revenue, in accordance with the prescribed rules. The Extradition (Amendment) Bill, 2025 is meant to ease process for disposal of extradition requests received from foreign jurisdiction through diplomatic channels. The Extradition (Amendment) Bill, 2025 on becoming an Act of Parliament shall provide that instead of sending such cases to the Federal Cabinet, the Secretary Interior will order initiation of the process by appointing an inquiry officer.
The Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Bill, 2025 bill moved by Sharmila Faruqui is meant to curb, discourage and eventually eradicate the concept and phenomenon of Child marriages which are highly prevalent in Pakistan.
“In order to restrain child marriages and protect the basic rights of children, it is expedient to enact a law for the Islamabad Capital Territory”, the statement of objects and reasons of the bill said. No Nikah registrar shall register a marriage where one or both the contracting parties are below the age of 18 years.
Any person who induces, forces, persuades, entices or coerces any child bride or child groom to engage in any such activity prohibited or commits an act of this child abuse shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years and may extend up to seven years and with fine which shall not be less than Rs one million or both.
The Pakistan Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2024 will allow Pakistani diaspora to resume their Pakistani citizenship. A large number of Pakistani diaspora are complaining that they had to renounce their Pakistani citizenship as a condition for acquiring citizenship of a foreign country of residence or stay. Whenever such countries are entering into dual nationality arrangements with the government of Pakistan, there is no provision at present within Pakistan Citizenship Act, I95l which allows resumption of Pakistan citizenship. The Naturalization (Amendment) Bill, 2024 will enable the Director General Immigration and Passports while acting on behalf of the federal government to grant naturalization certificates. The House also passed a resolution by Syed Nausheen Iftikhar calling upon the government to give at least five years age relaxation to aspirants of Central Superior Services Examination and allow upper age limit at 35 with permission for five attempts to all eligible candidates.
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