National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justic on Thursday unanimously recommended that the tenure of election of bar associations should be enhanced from one year to two years, elections of all bar associations except Supreme Court Bar Association should be conducted in December after two years and new cabinet should take over the charge on 1st January after the election.
NA Committee met here under the Chairmanship of Riaz Fatyana to discuss different agenda items. The committee considered the agenda relating to discussion on tenure and election procedure of bar associations. During detailed deliberation the committee observed that reasonable opportunities had been granted to representatives of lawyers but so far; no adequate response had been received from bar associations as well as bar councils regarding enhancement of tenure of bar association as well as with respect of procedure of elections. Hence, the committee recommended that the campaign of the election should be restricted to maximum two months before the election date.
Committee considered the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (Section 5 and schedule) and after detailed deliberations it was informed by the Mover Nafeesa Shah that the Sindh Bar Council had categorically supported the Bill. Hence, she requested to pass the same. The Committee recommended that enhancement of one seat in the Sindh Bar Council against the District Khairpur should be approved.
The representatives of Pakistan Bar Council and Sindh Bar Council had not attended the meeting. Keeping in view the, consensus of all the Members, the Committee recommended that the Bill as amended should be passed by the Assembly.
Committee considered the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (Section 5) and after detailed deliberations it was informed by the Mover that the KPK Bar Council was also supporting his bill.
Committee observed that no written comments in support of the Bill had been received to the committee, hence, the committee deferred the same till its next meeting and for the comments of the concerned bar council to proceed further into the matter.
Committee consider the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (Article 51 and 106) moved by Zahid Akram Durrani and after detail deliberations Election Commission of Pakistan opposed the bill on the ground of as recently the Federal Government had announced for the new census hence, as per rule after new census delimitation would be requirement of the time hence, the grievance of the mover would be addressed after the delimitation.
Ministry of Law and Justice briefed the committee that after the merger of the erstwhile FATA, the grievances had already been redressed under Article 51 and 106 of the Constitution. After detail deliberations the Committee unanimously recommended that the bill should not be passed by the Assembly.
Committee considered the Superior Court (Number of Judges) (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (Amendment of Section 2 Act XXXIII of 199) moved by Qadir Khan Mandokhail and after detailed discussion the committee deferred the same till its next Committee meeting.
Discussion relating to the recruitment of Judges at High Courts, prescribing the procedure and pre-qualification for their appointment. The committee deferred the same till its next meeting.
Committee did not consider the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Article 239) moved by Ms. Kishwer Zehra and deferred the same till its next meeting at the request of the Mover.
Committee considered the Legal Aid & Justice Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2020, (Section 2, 6 & 9A) and after deliberation the Ministry of Law and Justice informed the Committee that some amendments were agreed during the meeting of the Mover with the Minister but the same had not been drafted. Hence, the Ministry requested to grant the one opportunity to finalize the draft. The Committee deferred the same till its next meeting with recommendation that Ministry of law and Justice should finalize the proposal before next meeting positively.
Committee did not consider the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (Insertion of Article 11-A) and deferred the same at the request of mover till its next meeting.
Committee did not consider the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (Article 59).
Committee consider the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (Article-1, 51 and 106) and after detail discussion the committee recommended that the Bill should not be passed by the Assembly.
Committee did not considered the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (Article 156) and the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2021(Article 27) and the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (Article 59) due to non-availability of the Movers.
Committee constituted the Sub-Committee under Chairmanship of Ch. Mehmood Bashir Virk and comprising Ms. Shunila Ruth, Ms. Kishwer Zehra, and Ms. Aliya Kamran.
The terms of reference (TORS) of the Committee would be to draft proposals regarding Judicial Reforms with specific reference to procedure for induction of judges including enhancement of Number of Judges in superior judiciary. The Committee would submit report within thirty days
Members/MNAs/Movers Lal Chand, Muhammad Farooq Azam Malik, MS. Kishwar Zehra, Mr. Junaid Akbar, Ms. Shunila Ruth, Ch. Mehmood Bashir Virk, Usman Ibraheem, Qadir Khan Mandokhail, Ms. Nafeesa Shah, Ms. Aliya Kamran, Sher Akbar Khan, Zahid Akram Durrani, Ms. Uzma Riaz and Naveed Aamir Jeva, besides the Secretary Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Human Rights, Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan along with their staff attended the meeting.
