Daily Times

The Senate on Friday passed two higher education related bills including the Higher Education Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Higher Education Commission (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021 with majority votes.

Both the bills were piloted by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan on behalf of Minister of Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood in the House.

The Opposition lawmakers protested and said that these were person specific legislations and these should be referred to the concerned standing committees.

Minister of State Ali Muhammad Khan said that the bills were passed by the National Assembly Standing Committees and requested the chair to take sense of the House and passed it.

Sherry Rehman alleged that the higher education commission related bills were person specific and these should be referred to the committee for deliberation.

Law Minister Farogh Naseem said many such bills were passed by the House during PML-N and PPP tenures without referring to the committees. “It totally depends on the House whether it refers the bill to the committees or pass it,” he said.

He also clarified that these bills were not person specific and the House should consider it.

The Chair put the motion to the House for voting. As many as 34 members voted in favor of the motion while 28 opposed it; consequently the motion was adopted with majority votes.

Leader of the House Dr Waseem Shahzad was of the view that the bills were related to the higher education and were time barred so the House should take up it immediately.

Minister of Science and Technology Syed Shibli Faraz said that opposition should shun double standard and hypocrisy. The opposition always used to oppose all those bills passed in the committee through consensus, he added.

Meanwhile, the Chairman referred four bills including the Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Amendment) Bill, 2021, the National Commission on the Rights of Child (Amendment) Bill, 2021, the Juvenile Justice System (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Islamabad Capital Territory Child Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2021 to the concerned standing committee for detailed discussion.

The bills were moved by Minister for Human Rights Dr. Shireen Mazari in the House.