PML-N shies away from new legislations

The recent devastating attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar has united both the people and politicians of Pakistan. Now, they seem to have a common agenda of fighting terrorism, and hope to pave the way for a new and better Pakistan.

Such was the impact of the attack that even the opposition decided to call off their campaign to support the PML-N in its counter-terrorism efforts. However, prior to this, there was never a strong demand to strengthen the country's weak criminal justice system.

Though dismal as this is, the Nawaz Sharif-led government has shown poor results when it comes to introducing public interest bills, which raises serious concerns about the seriousness of lawmakers in the legislative process.

Out of the 58 private members' bills tabled since June 2013, not a single one has grabbed the attention of any legislator. An official from the National Assembly Secretariat says that due to unnecessarily lengthy agenda proposed by private members, key public interest areas couldn't see the light of the day.

Meanwhile, of the 18 bills tabled by the treasury benches in Parliament, 15 have been cleared by the house. But none of these proposed laws are linked to public interest. Overall, the National Assembly adopted 80 resolutions in 2014 on various areas like PIA's performance, ceasefire violations by India, Gaza conflict, CNIC registration and condemnation of terrorist attacks.

Unlike the PML-N, the previous PPP government had set a record by passing 116 bills, with an average of more than 23 bills each parliamentary year, which includes 19 private bills as well. The Protection of Pakistan Bill - 2014 and The Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Act, 2014 were passed during the outgoing year. Surprisingly, under the PML-N, not even a single private member bill has been passed by the National Assembly.

MQM lawmaker Kishwar Zehra laments that she introduced seven bills that represented public interest but none of them was passed. For this, she blames the poor parliamentary performance of the ruling government.

It would be interesting to note that according to official records, some important bills like The Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace (Amendment Bill) 2014, and Torture, Custodial Death and Custodial Rape (Prevention and Prevent) Bill 2014, HIV/AIDS (Safety and Control) Bill 2013, and Ratification of International Treaties Bill 2013, are still pending with the relevant standing committees of the Senate and the National Assembly.

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