ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party parliamentarians have prepared to introduce a bill in the National Assembly under which citizens will have the right to file a public petition in the National Assembly asking the National Assembly to intervene in individual and collective matters.
It is stated in the agenda of the National Assembly of April 23 that People’s Party MNA Nafeesa Shah has requested to amend the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business 2007 Act in the National Assembly. According to his amendment, under the new rules 295 and 296, citizens will have the right to approach the National Assembly with a public petition.
Under Rule 295, any Pakistani citizen or natural or legal person shall have the right to petition the National Assembly individually or jointly with others for any matter affecting him or all of them. The applicant has to enter his name, nationality and permanent address. In case of more than one petitioner, all the signatories shall appoint a representative.
Any of the petitioners may withdraw this application at any time. Application should be written in professional language in Urdu or English. However, applications in provincial or local languages like Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto, Balochi, Kashmiri, Shina, Hindko or Brahvi will also be accepted. An application that meets the criteria will be entered in the register.
An application that could not be entered in the register will be communicated to the applicant. The petitions entered in the register will be forwarded by the Speaker to the responsible Public Petitions Committee. The committee will first review the admissibility of the application. If the application is not considered admissible, the petitioner will be informed and the reason for non-acceptance of the application will also be communicated to him. He will also be advised of alternative means of redressal of the grievance if possible.
Once the petition is registered, the petition will become a public document under the General Regulations and the National Assembly can also publish it to achieve transparency. If it does not meet the eligibility criteria to be a public document, it will not be disclosed at the request of the petitioners. If the petition cannot be investigated due to the anonymity of the petitioners, the petitioners will be consulted in this regard.
Petitioners may also request that their petition be dealt with confidentially. In this case, Parliament will take all precautionary measures. The Committee may also refer the petition to the Federal Ombudsman, concerned government agency or division to deal with the petition as it deems appropriate.
Rule 296 deals with matters of review, disposal and report of petitions. The rule said that if necessary, the petitioners would be called to the committee for discussion. Petitioners will be granted the right to speak at the discretion of the Committee Chair. The committee will submit a report to the Parliament regarding the petition and inform the Parliament of the steps taken regarding the petition. This committee will be able to seek input from other parliamentary committees wherever necessary in the issue under consideration.
The report will also liaise with the Standing Committee regarding the interpretation of the law or the proposed change in the existing law. If the relevant standing committee does not accept the proposed amendment to the law, the attached committee can also submit the amendment directly to the Parliament. While investigating the applications may also visit the places related to the application for fact finding to establish the facts or to propose solutions. Visitor report will also be prepared.
The committee will also inform the petitioner of its decisions and the reasons for those decisions. When the review of admissible petitions is complete, the petition will be declared closed and the petitioner will be notified.
On the other hand, it should be noted that the legislators of the Sunni Unity Council want to bring a bill to amend Articles 175A and 215 of the Constitution. Similarly, Nafisa Shah also wants to bring a bill to amend Article 25.
