Senate body deliberates upon bill on pMPs privileges
By Asghar Ali Mubarak

ISLAMABAD—A sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Law,Justice and Parliamentary Affairs on Thursday deliberated on a report on “Parliament and its members privileges bill 2003 “ introduced by Senator Muhammad Anwar Bhinder in the House on December 8,2003.
The sub-committee met in the Parliament House here with Senator S.M.
Zafar in the chair.The sub-committee considered various aspects of the proposed law on privileges of the Parliamentarians following an exhaustive debate on whether we should have a codified law having well-defined privileges and prerogatives of the Parliamentarians for ascertaining if a breach has occurred and if so,whether to punish those responsible for such a breach.
Various models and patterns being followed in this connection indemocracies like US,UK,Australia and India were referred to by the members and it was observed that our constitution permits the Parliamentarians to enact a law on privileges.
S.M.Zafar,the convener of the committee appreciated the good and exhaustive work done by seasoned Parliamentarians and mover of the bill Chaudhry Anwar Bhinder in this regard adding that the members must study thedraft proposals so that the contours of the proposed law on privileges could be determined.
It was agreed that the Parliament,being the supreme law making body,must have a statue to defend its own honour,sanctity,sovereignty and prestige.It was also decided to obtain the views of other members of the sub-committee before finalizing the recommendations. The meeting was also attended by Senators Anwar Bhinder and Farooq Hameed Naik.