Daily Times

The National Assembly has passed seven government bills, including the National Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism Authority Bill 2023.

Hina Rabbani Khar, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, introduced the bill that was passed on Thursday.

She stated that the legislation was extremely important and that, if properly enforced and implemented, it would ensure that Pakistan did not return to the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list.

According to Hina Khar, the bill calls for the establishment of a National Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Authority.

She said the chairman of the authority would be appointed by the prime minister, adding the authority would comprise the finance secretary, foreign affairs secretary, interior secretary, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan chairman, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) DG, Anti-Narcotics Force DG, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman, Financial Monitoring Unit DG, NACTA national coordinator and the chief secretaries of provinces.

Other government bills, which were passed by the house, on Thursday included ‘The Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals (Amendment) Bill, 2023’, ‘The Press, Newspapers, News Agencies and Books Registration (Amendment) Bill, 2023’, ‘Pakistan Civil Aviation Bill, 2023’, the ‘National Logistics Corporation Bill, 2023’, ‘The Gun and Country Club Bill, 2023’ and the ‘Pakistan Air Safety Investigation Bill, 2023’.

Earlier, the National Assembly proceedings saw debates and protest over attempts to pass and passage a volley of bills to set up over two dozen private educational institutes and universities in different parts of the country.

Jamaat-e-Islami’s Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali questioned whether National Assembly members had signed a contract to set up private universities and have bills passed on their behalf.

“A single member of the house introduced legislation to establish ten private universities in Islamabad and other parts of the country while compromising educational quality,” he said.

He also mentioned the lack of quorum in the House in an attempt to prevent bills from being passed, resulting in the adjournment of proceedings until Friday.

The House could only pass one private member bill, the Institute of Gujarat Bill, 2023, introduced by Armaghan Subhani.

Federal Minister for Education Rana Tanveer Hussain agreed with the JI parliamentarian, saying that some members wanted to get university charters approved through Acts of Parliament.

He stated that in the past, the Punjab Assembly approved the charters of 11 universities without completing the codal formalities, and that the Higher Education Commission was no longer attesting degrees from those universities.

He stated that the National Assembly was passing bills that were stalled in Senate standing committees. He agreed that the mushrooming growth of private-sector universities could not improve education quality. He agreed that the National Assembly could pass legislation establishing an institute rather than a university.

The PML-N’s Zulfiqar Ali Bhatti, who wanted to introduce the Kings Universities Bill, 2023, said he would withdraw his bill if assurances were given that bills of universities with no NOC from HEC would not be passed as well.

Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali also prevented the passage of another bill relating to setting up a private university. “The university being set up in Lahore is being given the name of Islamabad,” he said.

The JI parliamentarian raised the question of lack of quorum, leading to the adjournment of proceedings till Friday (today).

The JI MNA made his presence known, having previously threatened to point out the lack of quorum while protesting the treatment meted out to him by interior ministry officials.

He claimed that he went to the ministry the other day to check on updates on cases of previously submitted arms licences, but that he was treated harshly by officials there.

He requested that the speaker postpone a bill sponsored by the ministry; otherwise, he would raise the issue of quorum in the House.

On his request, Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, who wanted to move the Federal Prosecution Bill, 2023 on behalf of the interior minister, agreed to defer the bill.