LAHORE: A government legislator informed the Punjab Assembly on Thursday that in order to resolve problems faced by the Christian community at national as well as international level and to give them authentic identification, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has started registration of Christian marriages, divorces, births and death details in all 36 districts of the province.
Punjab Human Rights and Minority Affairs Minister Khalil Tahir Sindhu told the House that his government had advised the NADRA officials and DCOs of all 36 districts of the province to establish a special ‘server’ for collecting and registering the data of Christians in this regard.
Sindhu informed the House that all Christian marriages, divorces, births and deaths are getting registered at union council level under the Clause 90 of the Eighth Schedule of the Punjab Local Government Act 2013, which was not being implemented before.
He also confirmed that the Punjab government had not prepared any type of list of bishops but instead asked the main steam churches to provide them the lists so they could be enrolled as competent authorities, like a registrar, who could solemnise and register marriages or divorces of the community. The minister, answering the query of a minority opposition member Shenila Ruth, accepted that some people were involved in false practices of solemnising Christian marriages in the past after registering themselves as registrars with connivance of the Chamba House.
He confirmed that such fake Christian marriage registrars were also involved in solemnising the marriages of teenage girls that created serious legal, social and other issues in the society. He informed that the government had already registered cases of fraud and other sections of the penal code against such fake people.
Punjab Assembly session on Thursday started one hour and nine minutes late to its scheduled time under the chair of Speaker Rana Iqbal. After reciting holy verses of Quran, the House adopted question hour about four different departments including Human Rights and Minority Affairs, Communication and Works, Food, and Law and Parliamentary Affairs. Due to absence of the concerned minister and parliamentary secretary for law, the speaker pended the related question, while ministers Tahir Khalil Sindhu, Tanveer Aslam and Parliamentary Secretary Chaudhry Asadullah respectively answered their concerned queries.
Later, the House passed two bills including the Punjab Drugs (Amendment) Bill 2015 and The Fatima Jinnah Medical University Lahore (Amendment) Bill 2015 while a bill related to ‘Punjab Poultry Products’ was introduced by the law minister in the House.
According to the amended bill of Fatima Jinnah Medical University (FJMU), the government has increased the age limit of vice chancellor till 65 years with qualification of MBBS or equivalent and having experience in under graduate and postgraduate medical teaching as well as experience in administrative and financial management.
In the bill regarding poultry productions, the government has proposed a compulsory registration of all poultry farm owners, who have more than 500 birds (related to poultry), with restriction of surrounding the poultry premises by a fence or wall.
The introduced bill also included punishments of up to six month with a fine of Rs 0.5 million on the violation of bye-laws, while it gave the authority to a veterinarian inspector to enter and inspect any poultry premises for ensuring the implementation of laws. According to the proposed bill, no new poultry farm for ‘broiler-to-broiler’ and ‘layer-to-layer’ could be establish within aerial distance of one kilometre. After completing the day agenda, the chair prorogued the Punjab Assembly’s 21st session for indefinite period.