Islamabad, 26th July, 2017; 41st meeting of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice was held today under the Chairmanship of Chaudhry Mahmood Bashir Virk, MNA.

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

3.Agenda Item No. i

  The Committee unanimously confirmed the minutes of its previous meeting held on 02-05-2017.

4.Agenda Item No. ii

(a) The Committee considered “The Constitution (Twenty-ninth Amendment) Bill,2017”, in detail, due to divergent views of the Members of the Committee. The Committee remains unable to reach the consensus and decided to defer it till its next meeting for further deliberations.

(b) The Committee considered “The Arbitration and Conciliation Bill, 2015”,  (moved by Ms. Surriya Asghar, MNA) in detail. It was appraised by the Hon. Minister for Law and Justice that the Ministry has already done a detailed work for provision of separate Bill on Arbitration and Conciliation. Further, the Law Ministry has invited suggestions at its website from the public at large including Bar Councils and Legal Practitioners for up-gradation of Arbitration Act, 1940. As the up-gradation of the said Law is under its way, hence, there is no need to consider and approve the titled Bill. However, the Committee due to non availability of the Hon. Mover deferred the Bill till its next meeting. 

(c) The Committee considered “The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017”(Amendment in Article 37) (Moved by Ms. Naeema Kishwer Khan, MNA) in detail and it was agreed by the Committee to defer the sai Bill till the opinion from the Minorities/Non-Muslims be obtain about the said amendment.

(d) The Committee considered “The Legal Practitioners and Bar Council(Amendment0 Bill, 2017” (Moved by Ms. Saman Sultana Jafri, MNA) and decided that the Bill may not be passed by the Assembly.

5.The Hon. Members/MNA/Mover Justice ® Iftikhar Ahmad Cheema, Chaudhary Muhammad Ashraf, Mr. Muhammad Moeen Wattoo, Syed Ayaz Ali Shah Sherazi, Mr. Muhammad Ahmed Tarar, Mr. Rajab Ali Khan Baloch, Syed Naveed Qamar, Eng. Ali Muhammad Khan Advocate, Dr. Arif Alvi, Mr. S.A. Iqbal Quadri, Moulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, Ms. Aisha and Minister for Law and Justice attended the meeting besides the senior officers from the Ministry of Law and Justice with their staff.