Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The minister for parliamentary affairs will move a bill in the National Assembly on Monday (today), as the federal government moves to get salaries as well as perks and privileges for the newly appointed members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) approved.

According to a nine-point agenda available with Daily Times, the National Assembly is meeting today after a two-day break with Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq in the chair. Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmad will table the Members of the Election Commission (Salary, Allowances, Perks and Privileges) Bill 2016 for approval today. It has been recommended in the bill that ECP members should get salaries and allowances equal to a judge of the high court. The government also wants the National Assembly to give an approval for salaries as well as perks and privileges for former members of the ECP because they received salaries for five years without any legal cover. It may be mentioned here that four former members of the ECP received about Rs 400 million in salaries from the national kitty.

Lawmaker Shah Jee Gul Afridi and his fellow lawmakers from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) would raise the issue of damages caused to people’s property in the counterterrorism operations such as the Operation Zarb-e-Azb, Khyber-1 and Khyber-2 in tribal areas and the reconstruction process there, through a Calling Attention Notice.

According to the agenda of today’s session of the National Assembly, PTI members Aqib Ullah and others would raise the issue of expiry of tenure of the board of directors of the Pakistan Tobacco Board, low rate of tobacco crop and refusal of tobacco companies, including Pakistan Tobacco Company and Philip Morris, to purchase 60 percent of tobacco from farmers.