KP Assembly passes four amendment bills

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Thursday unanimously passed four bills seeking amendments to different acts, including the Ehtesab Commission Act 2014.
Law Minister Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi moved a motion for passage of the Ehtesab Commission (Amendment) Bill 2015 on behalf of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who was also present in the House.
Opposition leader Maulana Lutfur Rahman, who belongs to the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and his party colleague Munawar Khan suggested that the bill should be referred to the assembly’s select committee for discussion so that it is cleared of flaws.
They said the bill should be thoroughly reviewed to avoid repeated amendments in future. However, provincial ministers Shah Farman and Inayatullah Khan said the government would incorporate any suggestion but at the moment the bill should be passed to ensure smooth process of the accountability and remove legal lacunas.
They argued that all the lawmakers are united for pursuing just and fair process of accountability. They said they wanted proper investigation of a case before arresting the accused to avoid undue insult to anyone.
Speaker Asad Qaiser ruled that the bill cannot be referred to select committee at this stage as no member suggested any amendment even though the bill was tabled a few days ago. PTI MPA Gul Sahib Khan withdrew his amendment before the Speaker called for vote. The House unanimously passed the bill.
The Amendment to the Ehtesab Commission Bill, besides other minor changes, read that all offences under the Act shall be non-bailable and no court shall have the jurisdiction to grant bail to any accused of the offence under this Act.
The accused convicted in the offence under this Act shall not be entitled to any remission in sentence, under no circumstance shall the court grant adjournment of more than seven days, and the amendment once passed shall be deemed to have taken effect from January 1, 2014. The government may declare any place to be a police station for the purpose of the Act and each matter brought before the court under this Act shall be disposed of within three months from the date of reference being made.
The House also unanimously passed the Local Government (Fourth Amendment) Bill, 2015. As per the amendments, the nazim and naib nazim of the district council or tehsil or town council, as the case may be, shall be elected by the votes of the majority of the total membership of the council. If no nazim or naib nazim secures majority in the first poll, a second poll shall be held between the members. If the candidates get equal number of votes, further two sittings with interval of one week in between, shall be held and if none of them secures a majority of votes, the council shall stand dissolved and the matter shall be referred to the Election Commission for holding fresh elections.
Two more bills, the Establishment of Information Technology Board (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms (Amendment) Bill 2015 were also unanimously passed before the Speaker adjourned the session till September 7.
Earlier, PTI MPA Mehmood Jan, on a privilege motion, told the House that the standing committee on health called secretary health time and again but he didn’t turn up. He said that the committee once postponed its meeting as a mark of protest and asked the secretary to appear before it, but he again did not come despite the health minister’s assurance. The lawmaker argued that the secretary health had insulted the committee and its members.
He appealed to the Speaker to refer the matter to the privilege committee as it was a matter of the members’ prestige. Health Minister Shahram Khan said he would arrange the secretary’s meeting with the mover if he withdrew his motion.
However, Mehmood Jan insisted that the matter should be referred to the privilege committee. The Speaker agreed and referred the matter to the privilege committee, saying that appearance before the standing committees should be the top priority of the government officers as well as ministers.