Imtiaz complains his privileges repeatedly breached

By Saman Indrajith

SJB MP Imtiaz Bakeer Markar told Parliament yesterday that his parliamentary privileges had been breached by delays in respect of three Private Member Bills he had presented to Parliament to ensure a mandatory quota for youth below 35 in nominations for election.

Markar said that on January 2021 he had submitted to the Secretary General of Parliament the three Bills seeking the amendment to the Parliamentary Elections Act, Local Authorities Elections and the Provincial Council Elections Act, proposing that when submitting nomination papers each political party or independent group shall ensure that at least one fourth of the total number of candidates be nominated for the electoral district.

The Bills were gazetted and presented to the House on 06 July, 2022. As per Standing Orders, once a Bill is presented to the House, a report pertaining to that is called from the relevant Ministry. “However, the report on the Bills that I presented was not sent to Parliament until January 1, 2023.

Markar said that more than six months had lapsed since the matter was referred to the subject minister and requested that the bills which he had submitted be included in the Parliament Order Book without further delay.