ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Thursday passed the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Substitution of Article 251) calling for giving the status of national language to Sindhi, Punjabi, Balochi and Pashto in addition to Urdu.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi at the Parliament House.
Earlier, the committee after having taken views from all relevant stakeholders in the previous meetings i.e. the law division, attorney general of Pakistan, Council of Islamic Ideology, provincial prison departments, decided that the existing rules already had the provision of death by hanging publicly in view of rule 354 of the prison rules and hence observed that an amendment in the Pakistan Penal Code would not be required for the same. The committee remarked that it was the domain of the prison departments to see in what place and how were public hangings to be carried out.
Senator Murtaza Wahab gave his remarks that while the severity of punishment was needed, it was the certainty of punishment that fulfilled the needs of justice.
The committee also rejected the Constitution Amendment Bill, 2017 (Amendment of Article 255) moved by Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati due to the absence of the mover in a number of meetings.
