The upcoming sessions of the Lower and Upper Houses of the parliament are likely to witness heated battles between the government and opposition parties over the issues of dual nationality lawmakers and Public Office Accountability Bill.
According to details, President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned the National Assembly’s session tomorrow (October 5, 2012) at 10am, and the Senate session on Monday (October 8, 2012).
Sources privy to the National Assembly Secretariat said that during the upcoming sessions of the parliament, the government had decided to table the long-awaited Drugs Regulatory Authority Bill, 2012, before the expiry of the Drugs Regulatory Agency of Pakistan Ordinance on October 15 in order to give legal cover to the regulatory body.
On the other hand, the accountability bill is also likely to be tabled in the upcoming sittings of both the Houses, as negotiations between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on the issue have remained successful to a large extent and most of the points in the bill’s draft have been finalised.
The bill was first introduced in the National Assembly under the title of “the Holder of Public Office Accountability Bill 2009”.
It was forwarded to the NA Committee on Law and Justice in April 2009. While the committee approved it in 2009, the PML-N strongly opposed it on a number of occasions, and the bill could not be passed due to disagreement between the two major parties in the parliament.
The Supreme Court’s ruling against dual nationality holders in the parliament has deprived about a dozen lawmakers of their seats. In the upcoming sessions, the issue is likely to arouse heated debates between the government and the opposition parties.
