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Friday March 29, 2024

Bills to amend Ehtesab Commission, Consumers Protection acts passed

KP Assembly

By Nisar Mahmood
April 11, 2015
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday passed two bills seeking amendments to the Ehtesab Commission Act, 2014 and Consumers Protection Act, 1997.
The assembly session presided over by Speaker Asad Qaiser unanimously passed the bills as no member raised any objection to it.The bills were introduced by Law Minister Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi on behalf of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.
Three sections of the Ehtesab Commission Act, 2014 were emended while 10 amendments were introduced to the Consumers Protection Act 1997.With the amendment to the first bill to be called the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission Act, 2015, probe into any case of corruption can be now started from 2004 onwards instead of the earlier date of 2014.
The bill shall come into force at once and the Act shall be deemed to have taken effect from January 1, 2004.The formation of independent Ehtesab Commission is one of the major initiatives of the reforms agenda of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led provincial government.
The amendments to the Consumers Protection Act aim at bringing the law in line with the present-day requirements and to protect the consumers from unfair trade practices of manufacturers, traders and service providers.
Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Najma Shaheen on a call attention notice drew the attention of the House towards the issue of women schoolteachers performing polio vaccination duty. She said the deputy commissioner Kohat had lodged cases against 30 teachers who refused to perform duty in the anti-polio vaccination campaigns.
The legislator said the female schoolteachers were forced to work in far-flung areas without any security and were not provided transportation.The MPA said the involvement of teachers affected the education of the students so the government should make alternate arrangements.
Mufti Janan of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) also supported the call attention notice and said teachers should be exempted from working in the anti-polio campaign.Minister for Public Health Engineering Shah Farman admitted that women teachers faced hardships while taking part in the anti-polio campaigns in far-off areas. He said transportation and security were two major problems.
He suggested there should be some alternate arrangements for the anti-plio vaccination drives.Minister for Local Governments Inayatullah also admitted that performing duty in the anti-polio campaign caused problems to the teachers and affected the studies of the students.
He said the deputy commissioner had no authority to lodge cases against the teachers. He argued that the deputy commissioner could only take disciplinary action in case of absence from duty.
On the issue of dust arising from marble factories on Warsak Road, the minister assured that he would take up the matter with the Communication and Works, Industries and Environment departments.
PTI MPA Mahmood Jan had raised the issued on a point of order.Dissident PTI MPA Javed Nasim raised the issues of his constituency that included clean drinking water, rise in diseases like hepatitis and poor law and order situation.
He said people in his constituency received extortion notes demanding money frequently. He reminded that a one and a half year child was kidnapped for ransom recently.He said the police had failed to protect the citizens. He believed that police officers didn’t heed public complaints about rising crimes.
Shah Farman replied that the government was committed to providing services to the people. He said the Water and Sanitation Services had been tasked with solving the civic problems.The Speaker adjourned the assembly to meet on Monday at 2pm.