ISLAMABAD - A National Assembly panel Tuesday approved the bill seeking establishment of a national centre for countering violent extremism amid opposition of the National Counter Terrorism Authority.
The National Standing Committee on Interior which met in the chair of MNA Rana Shamim Ahmad Khan passed the “National Centre for Countering Violent Extremism Bill, 2017” moved by MNA Romina Khursheed Alam which seeks establishment of a national center for countering violent extremism.
The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) opposed the bill, saying that the authority is already mandated to propose counter terrorism and counter extremism strategies to the government under the NACTA Act and the bill proposed establishment of a parallel body under the Ministry of Defence. The authority, according to a working paper submitted before the committee, said the creation of another body with functions similar to the NACTA will be a burden on the exchequer.
Ihsan Ghani, National Coordinator NACTA told the committee that the establishment of a national centre for countering violent extremism exists in the NACAT Act. He proposed that the chairman of the centre should be interior minister instead of defence minister as proposed in the bill. He said that the mandate of countering extremism is with the NACTA and national centre for countering violent extremism should be established in the NACTA headquarters.
The mover of the bill said that establishment of the national centre for countering violent extremism was mandatory in the country as not only the students of different seminaries in the country involved in extremism but also highly qualified students were inclined towards extremism.
The statement of objects and reasons of the bill says that in order to accomplish the objectives of the National Action Plan (NAP) and to comprehend the menace of violet extremism, ethnic polarisation and religious fragmentation or intolerance, this bill intends to enhance national integration and inclusion through coordinated efforts.
Col. (Retd) Sohail, Director Operations National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), during discussion of NADRA (Amendment) Bill, 2017, informed the committee that orphan centres were reluctant to share information about children having unknown parents.
He said that Law Ministry has told the authority that there was no need to introduce new legislation but to frame rules to make bound such centres to share information with the authority.
MQM MNA Kanwar Naveed Jameel informed that according to a briefing given to the NA Human Rights Committee, there were one million children having unknown parentage in Pakistan but only 3,000 were registered with the NADRA. He said that such children were used in terrorism activities. The committee deferred the bill that was moved by MNA Suriya Asghar and sought comments from the Ministry of Interior.
Rizwan Ahmad, Special Secretary Ministry of Interior while briefing the committee about arms licences policy of the government said that one hundred thousand prohibited bore (PB) licences issued by the federal government have been suspended with the approval of federal cabinet. He said that the government had lifted ban on the issuance of non-prohibited bore (NPB) arms licences.
He said that prohibited bore licence holders have also given option to either get such weapons converted into non-automatic weapons or deposit the same with the district authorities concerned. He said that the NADRA would issue new non-prohibited bore licences in lieu of PB licences.
The committee also approved the “Minimum Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2017 moved by MNA Ms Fouzia Hameed seeking to ensure payment of minimum wage in transparent manner.
The committee also constituted a sub-committee in the covernorship of Nawab Muhammad Yousuf Talpur which will conduct a visit of Karachi prison to check violation of jail manual.