NA passes crucial bill on 'contempt of parliament'.

ISLAMABAD -- The NatAioAnal Assembly on TuesAday passed a critical bill seeking to empower the lawmakers to punish those committing contempt of parliament or its committees and breaching the privilege of any member of any house of parliament, as the legislators continued to assault judges of superior courts in the wake of ongoing executive-judiciary tussle over the issue of elections in Punjab.

The private member's bill, titled 'Contempt of Majlis-e-Shoora (ParliaAment) Bill 2023', had been tabled by PTI dissident Rana Qasim Noon last week and Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf immediately referred it to the house committee on rules and procedure with a directive to present its report within seven days after it was supported one by one by the members belonging to almost all the parties.

The members, however, passed the bill with some amendments to the original draft as suggested by the committee, also headed by Mr Noon. In the amended law, the composition of the contempt committee to be formed by the speaker has been changed and the fine amount reduced from Rs10 million to Rs1m.

The bill now requires its passage by the Senate and a ceremonial presidential assent before becoming an act of parliament.

Salient features

Under the proposed law, 'the power to award punishment' rests with a contempt committee which will take decision with a majority vote. In the original draft, it had been suggested that the contempt committee would comprise 24 members having equal representation from each house [Senate and NA]. However, the size of the committee has now been reduced to just five members.

'The speaker shall within thirty days of coming into force of this Act, constitute a Contempt Committee for the purposes mentioned in this Act,' reads Clause 5 of the bill. The Contempt Committee shall consist of a member of the NA to be nominated by the speaker, and two members each from the NA and the Senate to be nominated by the leaders of the house and opposition in both houses.

According to Section 9 of the proposed act, 'whoever commits contempt under this act, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or with fine which may extend to Rs1 million or with both'.

Section 10 of the bill states that 'any decision of a House shall be executed and enforced by district magistrate within whose territorial jurisdiction the accused is temporarily residing under relevant provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898'.

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