Joint session of parliament approves 10 bills amid PTI boycott

ISLAMABAD: The joint session of the parliament on Tuesday passed 10 bills amid boycott of the session by PTI lawmakers.

The Global Change Im­­pact Studies Centre (Amen­dment) Bill, 2022, moved by Minister for Climate Chan­­ge Senator Sherry Rehman, was the first of the 10 bills passed by the parliament.

Other bills approved by the parliament were:

the Public Procurement Regu­latory Authority (Amen­d­ment) Bill, 2022; the Pakis­tan Nursing Council (Amen­dment) Bill, 2022; the State-Owned Enterprises (Go­vernance and Opera­tio­ns) Bill, 2022; the Pakistan Global Institute Bill, 2022; the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2022; the Islamabad Capi­tal Territory Prohibition of Interest on Private Loans Bill, 2022; the Islamabad Compulsory Vaccination and Protection of Health Workers Bill, 2022; the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Bill, 2022; and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Bill, 2022.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly, which met just after the joint session,pas­sed the Foreign Invest­ment (Promotion and Protection) Bill, 2022, to limit the scope of the law to the Reko Diq project in Balochistan.

The Reko Diq project bill was already passed by the Senate, but it was brought to the house to limit its scope only to Reko Diq project after concern was expressed by lawmakers of both the opposition and the ruling coalition over it.

The house also passed the Control of Narcotics Substances (Amendment) Bill that provides for doing away with death penalty for drug smugglers and to replace it with life imprisonment.