ISLAMABAD - Demanding the government to announce the name of new chief justice of Pakistan, the opposition parties on the first day of 9th session yesterday staged walkout from the proceedings expressing reservations for not providing a proper opportunity to express their concerns in the house.
In the long sitting, the government with the majority passed the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2024 which may once again further delay the LG Polls in the federal capital. The legislation, sought amendments in the previous bill, has created chances to delay the pending polls as it contains three amendments and substitution of three sections of the ICT Local Government Act, 2015.
PTI’s Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, expressing the reservations on the bill, said it could cause further delay in holding of Islamabad Local Government elections.
According to an amendment in section-7, the top election regulatory body shall delimit union councils into nine wards for the elections of members on general seats. Previously, there were six wards in a union council. Another amendment to the substitution of section-15 says ‘all nine general members of each union council shall be directly elected by the voters registered in the corresponding union council’.
The amendment in section-11 says “there will be chairman and vice chairman of a union council as joint candidates, nine general members, one woman, one person or worker or business or technocrat, one youth member and one non Muslim,”.
Defending the reservations by opposition benches, MNA Tariq Fazal from treasury benches said that the government wants to empower the local government system to resolve the issues of people. “It would not make a difference if the polls delay for some days,” he said.
Earlier, Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Omar Ayub asked the government to announce the name of a new chief justice of Pakistan. He said the opposition would strongly protest if any legislation is done in this regard. It may be noted here that the CJP Qazi Faez Isa will retire on October 25.
The opposition members also staged a walkout from the House expressing reservations for not being given proper time to them.
Federal Minister for Law, Azam Nazeer Tarar, in response to the reservations, said under the existing Constitution and laws, a senior judge from the high courts could be appointed as chief justice by the Judicial Commission and Parliamentary Committee. The 18th Amendment, he argued, mandates that the most senior judge be appointed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
At the outset of the proceedings, the House offered fateha for the departed souls of officials of security forces and the law enforcement agencies, who embraced martyrdom in various incidents of terrorism in the country.
It also prayed for the departed souls of civilians and other people, who died in different incidents and road accidents.
The house was informed that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority worked out various initiatives to increase accessibility of the public to the internet. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Nazeer Tarar said PTA has allowed six gigahertz spectrum band for unlicensed operation for Radio Local Area Network in Pakistan.
He said with the unlocking at this band, Pakistan has become the 10th country in Asia Pacific to embrace six gigahertz for WIFI. He said currently, only sixty countries worldwide have unlocked six gigahertz for RLAN WIFI services. The PTA has also formulated the telecom infrastructure sharing framework for the growth and sustainability of the telecom sector in Pakistan, he said.
Some reports of the standing committees of the National Assembly “The State vs. Mubarak Ahmad Sani and another”, “The Establishment of Telecommunication Appellate Tribunal Bill, 2024, “The Cannabis Control and Regulatory Authority Bill, 2024”, “The Apostille Bill, 2024”, “The Privatization Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2024” and The Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2024” were presented before the House.