Senate expresses solidarity with China on coronavirus crisis

ISLAMABAD: The Senate of Pakistan on Monday unanimously passed a resolution to express full solidarity and support to the people, parliament and the government of China, as they combat the coronavirus crisis with dedication, commitment and courage. PML-N’s Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who is Chairman of the House Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, moved the resolution in the House, which carries signatures of Leader of the House Syed Shibli Faraz and Leader of Opposition Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq, besides Mushahid’s.

“The Senate also wishes to express its appreciation to the government of China for treating Pakistani citizens, especially students in Wuhan just like their own citizens by providing them protection and comfort. The Senate also wishes to place on record its appreciation of the leadership of President Xi Jinping, who is a great friend of Pakistan, in strongly leading what will be a very successful operation to combat, contain and finally eliminate the coronavirus,” the House said.

The Senate also said, “Pakistan fully supports the counter attack on the coronavirus launched by China and extends full cooperation to our Chinese brethren in this difficult moment of the medial and health emergency caused by the coronavirus”.

Earlier, PPP parliamentary leader in the House Senator Sherry Rehman introduced a bill: the Torture, Custodial Death and Custodial Sexual Violence (Prevention and Punishment) Act, 2019. Referring to the proposed piece of legislation, she noted, “in the recent one or two years, we have increasingly witnessed cases of police torturing those in their custody. Their treatment has been so barbaric that it has resulted in the death of many victims. Some names, like Salahuddin Ayubi and Amir Masih's stand out for the amount of media coverage they received but there are several others”.

She pointed out that the absurdly, reports even surfaced that Punjab police had been running torture cells privately. One victim, Amjad Ali, was brought in for interrogation and tortured in such a cell in Lahore, which was located inside the building of the forest department.

“There are many such cases including women and children too. Just in the last year, 52 people have been recorded dead in police custody due to the heinous torture inflicted on them,” she maintained.

She added, "therefore, with this bill, we have sought to define acts that constitute torture including custodial death and custodial sexual violence. This bill brings the domestic laws of our state in conformity with the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) which Pakistan is a signatory to and ratified back in 2010”.

“It does so by clearly defining the bounds of torture and prescribes punishments for violators. Currently, there are no Pakistan Penal Code provisions that criminalise torture, however, Article 14 (2) of the Constitution of Pakistan prohibits torture in custody, stating very clearly that no person shall be subjected to torture for the purpose of extracting evidence, so this bill addresses that,” she explained.

She emphasized, “we are very clear that penalties must be imposed as a punishment for torture. The bill specifies punishment of a term not less than three years and fine of one million. It also lays out a basic investigative procedure. Such a bill would be in the greater interest of our brave police force which risks disrepute due to the acts of a few black sheep.

I hope that this bill would be discussed in human rights committees and laid in the National Assembly without delay”. The bill was referred to the House Standing Committee for consideration and report. The Islamabad Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2018 was passed in the House.

The bill was introduced in the House by PTI Senator Mohsin Aziz in 2018. He explained the bill aimed at to establishment of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority for regulation and promotion of the real estate sector.

The House also passed “The National Counter Terrorism Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2019” to make an effective coordination and contribution by all major stakeholders and recommended the Interior Ministry to prepare a draft of legislation to give a forensic report the status of primary evidence in the courts. The committee report to this effect was tabled in the Senate by PPP Senator A Rehman Malik.