Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A joint meeting of the Senate Standing Committees on Law and Justice and Religious Affairs on Friday asked Ministry of Law and Justice to review “Premarital Blood Screening (Family Laws Amendment) bill, 2016 and submit a report within two weeks.

The main purpose of the bill was to check the spread of communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS, thalassemia and hepatitis. The joint meeting was held under the chair of Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi and Hafiz Hamdullah. It discussed in detail the bill seeking to make mandatory pre-marital blood screening of couples before marriage to prevent spread of communicable diseases.

The bill moved by PML-N Senator Chaudhary Tanveer Khan, which was referred by Senate to Senate Standing Committee for Law and Justice for further deliberation and asked to report back to the house. Senator Khan said that pre-marital blood screening of couples was not un-Islamic. “Around 8,000 babies are born every year with thalassemia in Pakistan, if efforts were not to made to control this disease, the number of thalassemia patients would further increase in the country”, he said.

Spread of thalassemia and other communicable disease could easily be controlled through pre-marital blood screening of couples. The law related to pre-martial blood screening of couples was currently exists in Saudi Arabia, Iran and other Middle East countries, he further said. Javed Abbasi said that the bill was very important for the whole society and the committee would also take the viewpoint of the Senate Chairman in this regard. “It was our responsibility to facilitate the public and curtail their difficulties but we need to keep in mind people who are living rural areas before making any decision regarding the bill,” said Senator Hafiz Hamdullah chairman Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs.

The committee, following a detailed deliberation, asked the Ministry of Law and Justice to review the bill and submit a report before the committee within two weeks. Suhail Aamir Secretary Ministry of Religious Affairs said that there was a need to launch an effective campaign regarding pre-martial blood screening of couples before making it mandatory in the country.

Karamat Hussain Niazi, Secretary for Ministry of Law and Justice, did not oppose the bill but suggested to hold detailed discussion on it before making any decision. Dr Hasan Raza, petrologist at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), said that the implementation of the proposed law would be difficult as currently there was no mechanism in the country to regulate laboratories. “Without the required infrastructure and laboratories the implementation of the proposed law would be impossible,” he said. According to a statement of objectives and reasons, consanguineous marriages have become a greater risk for the society as children born out of it suffer from several congenital problems. “It happens in cases of children born out of union involving first cousins. Through such close relative marriages, a person who carries a defect in any of the genes associated with some form of disease and marries a person from the same kindred who also shares the defect,” it added.

It further said that the child inherits two copies of this faulty gene and becomes a victim of an inherited disease, adding such inherited disabilities range from blindness, cerebral palsy, mental disorders, thalassemia, physical deformities and hearing and speech impairments etc.

In Pakistan 77 percent of babies born with birth defects belong to parents who were in consanguineous marriages and such children have a much lower rate of survival, it said.

Senator Saleem Zia, Nehal Hashmi, Baz Muhamamd Khan, Hari Ram, John Kenneth Williams, Pir Muhammad Amin Ul Hasnat Shah state minister for religious affairs and senior officials of Ministry law and religious affairs also attended the meeting.