Islamabad, 13th March, 2019; 7th meeting of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice was held today under the Chairmanship of Mr. Riaz Fatyana, MNA.

2.    The meeting started with the recitation from the Holy Quran. Then, the Committee decided to proceed with the agenda.

3.    The Committee was briefed by the Executive Director Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Service (PIPS) and by the representative of the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) about the reforms, improvements and amendments in the present laws. It was appraised to the Committee that there are about 740 different laws in force at this time in Pakistan. The major issue for failure of implementation of these laws is the failure of the concerned departments to formulate the rules and regulations which are delegated to these departments.

4.    It was further appraised to the Committee that the Ministry of law and justice has taken an unprecedented step and has updated the certified laws at the official website. It was pointed out that the certificates given with these laws need improvements because it neither contains the date of its certification nor the name of the given Statute. Hence it was proposed that the certificate be more specific. The Committee appreciated and paid thanks for the above said briefings. The Committee recommended that, the certificate given at the website be relooked and updated as mentioned above. It was further recommended that the Ministry shall provide the proposals for consolidation of various laws upon the same subject along with the proposal to device procedure and provision of time frame to various departments for delegated legislation.

5.    It was pointed out by the Committee that the delegated legislation under the Hindu Marriage Act, 2017 is still awaited in spite of the deadline given in the Act. The Committee recommended seeking detailed report upon the given subject from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Harmony.

6.    Hon. Members/MNAs/Movers Mr. Atta Ullah, Mr. Lal Chand, Mr. Muhammad Farooq Azam Malik, Mr. Muhammad Sana Ullah Khan Masti Khel, Agha Hassan Baloch, Mr. Sher Ali Arbab, Ms. Shunila Ruth, Rana Sana Ullah Khan, Ch. Mehmood Bashir Virk, Mr. Usman Ibrahim, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Syed Hussain Tariq, Ms. Aliya Kamran, attended the meeting besides the senior officers from the Ministry of Law and Justice, PIPS and NCHR with their staff.