- Senate Committee on Law and Justice rejects ‘The Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2016’, previously passed by NA
- Defers discussion on two other bills
- Disposes of the issue of provincial representation in Pakistan Bureau of Statistics
Shah Nawaz Mohal
Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice has rejected Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati’s bill — ‘The Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2016’ – here on Tuesday in Islamabad. The committee rejected the Bill, saying that adequate representation of women in judiciary was already being ensured through merit and that there was no need for legislation at the moment in that regard. The committee was convened at the Parliament House under the chairmanship of Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi.
The committee deferred further consideration of the bill at the request of the minister for law and justice for a detailed feedback. The bill has already been passed by National Assembly and was introduced in the Senate on October 7, 2016.
The meeting was attended by Senators Saleem Zia, Nehal Hashmi, Ayesha Raza Farooq and Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid, as well as representatives of other relevant departments.
Women are under-represented in the higher judiciary in Pakistan. Out of 112 judges of high courts across Pakistan, only seven are women while there is no female judge among the 18 justices of Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The committee also considered two other bills including ‘The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Amendment of Article 209)’ and ‘The National Commission for International Law and Commitments Bill 2016’, introduced by Senators Zaheer-ud-Din Babar Awan and Karim Ahmed Khawaja, respectively.
Both bills were deferred for further discussion at a later date as both senators were not present during the meeting.
On the issue of autonomy of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and representation from all four provinces, a senior official from the Statistics Division informed that PBS enjoyed functional autonomy as per law and that governing council had representation from all the four provinces. The committee disposed of the matter while expressing satisfaction over the reply from the Statistics Division.