NA Committee on Rules of Procedure & Privileges appoints Sub-Committee to further examine amendments moved by Dr. Nafisa Shah

ISLAMABAD, July 09 (SABAH): The Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges appointed a Sub-Committee to examine the amendments moved by Dr. Nafisa Shah, MNA regarding insertion of new Rule 295 and Rule 296 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007.

2nd meeting of the Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges held on Tuesday in the Parliament House, Islamabad, under the Chairmanship of Muhammad Afzal, MNA.

Azam Nazeer Tarar, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs briefed the committee that the privileges of the members of the Parliament are covered under Article 66(3) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The Additional Secretary, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs apprised that rule 207 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007 provides functions of the Committee. He further briefed that under rule 293 of the said rules ibid any Member may give seven clear days’ notice of a motion for leave to amend these Rules to the Secretary and the notice shall be accompanied by the amendment proposed. He said that the Committee considers the proposed amendments in the Rules and make recommendations as per its function under rule 207(a).

Dr. Nafisa Shah, MNA gave a detailed presentation and quoted the example of different Parliaments of the world to deal with public petitions. The member also emphasized that the Member Parliament should be empowered to bring up the petitions from public.

After detailed deliberations and discussion, the Committee generally appreciated the idea of the Mover but stresses the need to further examine on the proposed amendments. Accordingly, it was unanimously decided that a Sub-Committee may be appointed under the convenership of Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon, MNA. The Sub-Committee will submit its report within thirty days to the Standing Committee for its final consideration.

Besides Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Azam Nazeer Tarar the meeting was attended by MNAs; Chaudhry Armghan Subhani, Ch. Muhammad Shahbaz Babar, Waseem Qadir, Syed Imran Ahmad Shah, Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon, Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan Nasir, Nawab Muhammad Yousaf Talpur, Zulfiqar Bachani, Ghulam Ali Talpur, Ramesh Lal, Khawaja Izharul Hassan, Ali Khan Jadoon, Ms. Aniqa Mehdi, Ghulam Muhammad, Muhammad Mahbob Sultan, Malik Muhammad Aamir Dogar. The senior officers from Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Ministry of Law and Justice also attended the meeting.