For the first time in the history of the Senate, the Upper House has constituted itself into a committee to look into an issue that majority senators viewed as urgent and was meant “for the common people.”
In the backdrop of a House discussion moved by Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi on speedy and inexpensive justice wherein senators demanded that either the motion be referred to the standing committee or a special committee be constituted, Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani Tuesday constituted the whole Senate into a committee, known in the rules book as a “Committee of the Whole.”
Taking part in the discussion, Senator Farhatullah Babar said, “Lack of speedy justice has resulted in people losing faith in the system, giving rise to parallel justice systems including jirgas and panchayats.”
Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq took the floor and moved the House under Rule 172-A of the Senate, which says that the House may constitute itself into a Committee of the Whole regarding: “steps/reforms for providing inexpensive and speedy justice in the country”.
The Committee of the Whole will conduct business only when there is quorum and will present its report to the House within three months. It will have powers to summon any person for questioning or ask for any government record to help the committee.
Rule 172-A, added to the ‘Rule of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate, 2012’ April this year, clearly states that, “The Committee shall have power to require the attendance of any person or summon production of papers, records from any Division, department, autonomous body, semiautonomous body or organisation, or examine such persons on oath or solemn affirmation, or invite or summon any person to give evidence in relation to any matter under its consideration.”
Under the rule, “The House may constitute itself into a committee of the whole on a motion by the leader of the House or leader of the opposition. When the House constitutes itself into a committee of the whole, it functions as one committee acting upon any matter(s) referred to by the house and conducts its proceedings like a regular committee with its membership composed of all members of the House.”
According to a notice of the Senate Secretariat, the agenda before the Committee of the Whole is identification of major areas of policy reform and concrete steps for provision of inexpensive and speedy justice. The agenda also includes finalisation of list of organisations, resource persons, experts and representative bodies to be invited for future meetings or deliberations.
Again I shall return to the theme of law and order, but first begin by acknowledging that the security services have started doing a stellar job and there appears to be a clear focus and determination on being very tough on major criminals. Recently, there was the AXACT financial fraud (I shall operate on the working assumption that indeed such a fraud did occur on a large scale). Clearly then, this is also a major crime and the question becomes what to do with the perpetrators of this fraud. By now, no one would be surprised were I to suggest execution of the top 2 or 3 criminals associated to this crime. A high profile case like this is exactly the sort of major crime where unambiguous messages need to be sent by the state. Convicted major criminals should understand that capital punishment will no longer be a theoretical possibility but a practical inevitability.
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