The Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2022, moved by Sabir Shah from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which provides for the creation of Hazara province, landed in the upper house of the Parliament on Monday while the house passed three private-member bills; The Guardians and Wards (Amendment) Bill 2020, The Control of Narcotic Substances (Amendment) Bill 2022 and The Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill 2021, moved by the senators from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Deputy Chairman Senate Mirza Muhammad Afridi presided over the Senate sitting in the absence of Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani on account of grandmother’s death.

Shah’s bill on the creation of Hazara province was referred to the relevant standing committee.

If passed by the Senate panel, the bill would require to be passed by Senate and then by National Assembly with two-third majority each, in order to be signed into law by the president of Pakistan.

Farooq Naek from PPP moved The Guardians and Wards (Amendment) Bill 2020, following its passage from the relevant standing committee, which was passed by the house. The bill seeks to “codify and clarify existing case law and afford protection to mothers” in relation to the custody of their children.

The other two bills; The Control of Narcotic Substances (Amendment) Bill 2022 and The Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill 2021, passed by the house, were moved by PPP’s Shahadat Awan.

The Control of Narcotic Substances (Amendment) Bill 2022 empowers a police officer of the rank of assistant sub-inspector (ASI) or equivalent to search/arrest any person accused of having narcotics in their possession.

The Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill 2021 seeks to streamline the practices related to admissibility of evidence in criminal cases. Other bills that were introduced in the Senate and referred to the relevant committees were: The Prevention and Rehabilitation of Vagrants Bill 2022, The Public Finance Management (Amendment) Bill 2022, The China Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority (Amendment) Bill 2022, The Right to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill 2022, The Public Private Partnership Authority (Amendment) Bill 2022 and The Special Technology Zones Authority (Amendment) Bill 2022.

The house passed two resolutions respectively moved by Seemee Ezdi from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Awan. “The Senate of Pakistan expresses deep concern over the poor water distribution and management system, scarcity of potable water and depleting supply capacity of Simly Dam and Khanpur Dam causing severe hardships to residents of Islamabad. The house therefore recommends that the government should explore alternate methods including rain water harvest system on priority and further take necessary steps to bridge gap between growing demand and supply of water in Islamabad,” reads Ezdi’s resolution.

“The Senate of Pakistan is cognizant of the general principle of law that ‘ignorance of law is not an excuse’ ie, maxim Ignoranta Juris Non Excusant, and strongly recommends that each ministry/division of the government shall immediately publish their respective updated laws, rules and regulations on their websites and in case of any amendment, update and publish the same for the use of general public,” reads Awan’s resolution.

The house was adjourned, till today (Tuesday), due to lack of quorum.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader in Senate Yousuf Raza Gillani formed a two-member committee comprising of PPP’s Taj Haider and Irfan Siddiqui from PML-N that would take up the issue of ‘inappropriate attitude’ of the chairman Senate during the recent Senate sitting that passed the controversial State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill 2022.

Sanjrani is accused of supporting the government in the passage of the said bill while Gillani is under fire from the public and political circles over his conspicuous absence from the all-important Senate sitting. Government officials including Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry have ‘thanked’ Gillani for his ‘support’ to the bill whereas treasury Senator Faisal Javed has extended ‘homage’ to the opposition leader over the matter.

This report was first published in Business Recorder on February 8, 2022.