Info Pioneer

ISLAMABAD: In a rare show concern for women without a dissent, the National Assembly unanimously passed a bill on Wednesday to provide for a higher punishment for their sexual harassment, expanding the definition of the crime to facilitate prosecution. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, which must be passed by the Senate as well to become law, amends both the Pakistan Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, increasing the punishment for the crime to up to three years in prison and a fine of up to Rs500,000 from up to one year and unspecified fine already provided in the PPC for a vague ‘insult (to) the modesty of a woman’. The draft, fruit of a campaign by women activists, was introduced in the house early this year by then information minister Sherry Rehman, who won special plaudits from both sides of the house during speeches after the bill -- already approved by a 16-member standing committee on law with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani cited as its minister-in-charge -- was...

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a landmark bill to regulate transplants of human organs in the country, making their sale and unauthorised transplant punishable with up to 10 years in prison. The house suspended some rules to take up the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Bill immediately after the standing committee on health presented its report on the draft based on a Musharraf-era ordinance and adopted it without a debate to honour Pakistan’s iconic kidney transplant surgeon Dr Adeeb Rizvi, who had campaigned for framing such a law and was present in a visitors’ gallery to witness the proceedings. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Speaker Fehmida Mirza and members from all parliamentary groups made brief remarks after the vote to congratulate the house for adopting the important bill, which will become permanent law after its passage by the Senate, and to praise Dr Adeeb’s services in the field. An identical bill introduced in the previous ...