The Parliamentary Committee on Legislative Business witnessed objections over a clause of the Electoral Reforms Bill, which calls for disclosing the number of wives with parliamentarians saying they will take it up in the relevant Senate Committee for necessary amendments, reports The Express Tribune.
Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, who was part of the parliamentary meeting, questioned: “We are asked how many wives you have. What is this? What have wives got to do with this?”
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ayaz Sadiq, and Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) Naveed Qamar, too, raised questions over the Electoral Reforms Bill.
Naveed Qamar said that the PPP was the most affected by the wives’ clause.
A committee had been set up by Deputy Speaker National Assembly Qasim Suri to approve the bills. A no-confidence motion against the deputy speaker was moved by the Opposition after which Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser formed a committee to review the bills.
Ayaz Sadiq said that if the House is to be run, the bills should be brought to the committee. “We should create terms of reference, important legislation should be made in this committee. If the minister or member has introduced the bill, he can withdraw it in the House.”
Abbasi said, “Twenty-one days have passed and according to the law, we cannot change it.”
