Business Recorder
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Monday passed four bills with a majority, including “the Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2025” aimed at replacing the term “Federal Government” with “appropriate authority/authorities” in relevant laws and rules in line with a 2017 cabinet decision. Opposition members of JamiatUlema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), NaeemaKishwar Khan and Alia Kamran, strongly opposed “The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2025” and other bills, saying they had serious objections to the amendment as it was against a judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP). They argued that the Supreme Court had ruled that decisions should be taken by the federal cabinet, not the federal government. They moved amendments to clauses of the bill, but Minister of State for Law and Justice Barrister Aqeel Malik opposed them. The proposed amendments were then put before the House for incorporation into the bill, but were rejected by the House. According to SCP’s judgment, “The landmark 2017 Supreme Court of Pakistan decision in the Mustafa Impex case (PLD 2017 SC 640) determined that the ‘Federal Government’ refers to the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, not the Prime Minister alone, requiring cabinet approval for policy, legislation, and financial decisions.” The ruling states that the Prime Minister can execute policy decisions, but cannot take them by himself, making the Cabinet supreme in decision-making. The Lower House of the Parliament approved four bills; (1) The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 205, (2) The Slandered Time (Interpretation of References) (Amendment) Bill, 2026, (3) The National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (LokVirsa) (Amendment) Bill, 2025 and (4) The Environmentally Sound Management of Inventory of Hazardous Material on Ship Bill, 2025. According to objects and reason of “The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2025”, ““The Bill seeks to amend the Civil Servants Act, 1973 (LXXI of 1973) with objective that the Cabinet in its meeting held on November 8, 2017, while considering the summary submitted by the Petroleum Division regarding the appointment of the Director General of the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan (HDIP) inter alia, decided that all ministries and divisions should in consultation with the Law and Justice Division, make amendment in the respective Act/ Rules and replace the words ‘Federal Government’ with ‘appropriate authority/authorities.” According to the objects and reasons of “The Environmentally Sound Management of Inventory of Hazardous Material on Ships, 2025”, it seeks to: (i) Facilitate implementation of the Hong Kong Convention, 2009, by establishing a comprehensive legal regime for the environmentally sound management of hazardous materials on board ships and during ship recycling operations. (ii) Protect human health, safety, and the environment by prohibiting or restricting the installation and use of hazardous materials on ships and by mandating the preparation, updating, and verification of inventories of hazardous materials throughout the operational life of ships. (iii) Designate authorities at national and provincial levels for effective regulation, coordination, and monitoring of ship recycling activities, ensuring division of responsibilities between the Federal Government and the provincial governments. (iv) Ensure regulatory compliance and enforcement by providing the national authority with powers to survey, inspect, detain, and issue certificates for hazardous material management and ship recycling readiness, along with imposing penalties and sanctions for violations. (v) Promote sustainable ship recycling practices by requiring ship recyclers to comply with environmentally sound management standards, subjecting hazardous wastes to designated treatment, storage, and disposal facilities, and enabling provincial governments to legislate complementary frameworks. (vi) Align Pakistan’s ship recycling industry with international standards, thereby safeguarding market access for Pakistani recyclers, promoting investor and stakeholder confidence, and preventing trade barriers arising from non-compliance with global environmental and safety requirements. (vii) Strengthen reporting obligations to the International Maritime Organization and other relevant stakeholders to ensure transparency and accountability. In view of the above, this Bill has been framed to provide a robust legal mechanism for the control, management, and disposal of hazardous materials contained in ships, thereby ensuring safe, environmentally sound, and sustainable ship recycling practices in Pakistan, in compliance with international commitments under the Hong Kong Convention, 2009.” According to “The Slandered Time (Interpretation of References) (Amendment) Bill, 2026, “Pakistan Standard Time (PST) is currently defined as being five and one-half hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), reflecting the pre-partition time difference, which does not correspond to the actual difference of plus five hours between PST and GMT. The proposed amendment seeks to remove this discrepancy.” The House also differed on “the Special Economic Zones (Amendment) Bill, 2026” and “The Islamabad Capital Territory Condominium (Ownership and Management) Bill, 2026”. The Islamabad Capital Territory Condominium (Ownership and Management) Bill, 2026, relates to high-rise buildings. The various reports on the Export-Import Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2026, the Netting of Financial Arrangements Bill, 2026, and other bills were presented in the House. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
Go to News Site