Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill passed: Senior officials obliged to disclose all assets
ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary body on Wednesday passed the Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which makes it mandatory for senior government officials, ranging from BPS-17 to BPS-22, to disclose their assets as well as those held by their family members.
The National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice, chaired by MNA Chaudhry Mahmood Bashir Virk, passed the bill after thorough deliberation. The committee, by majority vote, recommended that the bill be approved by the National Assembly without changes.
However, a group of committee members, including Changaze Ahmad Khan, Ali Muhammad Khan, Umair Khan Niazi, Aliya Kamran, Sohail Sultan, and Sardar Latif Khosa, recorded their dissent and proposed amendments to the bill.
According to the statements of objects and reasons of the bill, the proposed legislation aims at strengthening the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1964—specifically Rules 12, 13, and 13-A—and align with the Right of Access to Information Act, 2017. Under the bill, civil servants in higher grades will be required to digitally file asset declarations, including domestic and foreign assets beneficially owned by themselves or their immediate family members, it says.
It says that these declarations would be publicly accessible, with safeguards to protect sensitive personal data such as ID numbers, residential addresses, and bank or bond account details. The bill proposes that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to manage the asset disclosure system, while the Establishment Division would be empowered to conduct risk-based verification using dedicated resources and tools, it says.
The parliamentary body also consider the bill, 'The Qanun-e-Shahadat (Amendment) Bill, 2025' moved by MNA Shazia Marri. After detailed deliberations on the contents and implications of the proposed amendments, the committee decided to defer further consideration of the Bill to the next meeting.
The committee decided to allow the Ministry of Law and Justice sufficient time to furnish a comprehensive comparative analysis of relevant legal provisions across selected commonwealth countries, with a focus on best practices and alignment with international standards.
Additionally, during the discussion, the Ministry of Law and Justice highlighted that the proposed amendments, if enacted, would be uniformly applicable to all provinces. In light of this, the committee emphasised the importance of obtaining input from all provincial governments to ensure inclusivity and to account for regional perspectives. The committee recommended that the ministry law formally seek and compile the views and comments, of all four provinces before the next meeting.
MNAs, Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon, Zara Wadood Fatemi, Kiran Haider, DrNafisa Shah, Syed Abrar Ali Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Syed Hafeezuddin Changaze Ahmad Khan, Ali Muhammad Khan, Umair Khan Niazi, Hassaan Sabir, Aliya Kamran, Sohail Sultan, Sardar Muhammad Latif Khan Khosa, Shazia Marri, Minister of State for Law and Justice and Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice, Special Secretary Establishment, along with staff attended the meeting.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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The age of consent & the borders of belief
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It is hoped that this landmark legislation will serve as a model for other territories, especially Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, to follow it and strengthen their legal response to this grave human rights violation'. The journey toward a safer, progressive and more equitable Pakistan begins with laws that protect its youngest citizens. Therefore, in order to restrain child marriages and protect the basic rights of children, it is expedient to enact a law for ICT. Prevalence of child marriages in Pakistan This act was passed to combat and eradicate the phenomenon of child marriages, which is highly prevalent in Pakistan. According to the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2017-2018, 3.6 per cent of girls under the age of 15 are married off while 18.3 per cent of girls married off are under 18. However, Unicef reports 21 per cent of Pakistani girls are married by the age of 18, and three per cent before 15 years of age. In 2019, the World Health Organisation reported that 21 per cent marriages were being solemnised by the age of 18 years in Pakistan. According to a World Bank report, 18 per cent of girls in Pakistan marry before the age of 18 and 4 per cent marry before the age of 15. It further added that five per cent of boys in Pakistan marry before the age of 18. In 2020, 119 cases of child marriages were reported in the country, of which 95 per cent were of girls and five per cent were of boys, according to a report by Islamabad-based Sahil, a non-governmental organisation working for child protection. In Pakistan, there are various causes of child marriages, the most prevalent being insufficient legislation and lack of political will to ensure implementation of existing laws. There is a dearth of awareness among the public about the damaging effects of child marriages, especially within tribal and feudal societal structures, harmful practices, extreme poverty and illiteracy. Religious beliefs also enable this tradition. Moreover, child marriage often problematically coincides with conversion of religion. Mostly, Hindu girls in Sindh and Christian ones in Punjab are forcibly married to older Muslim men after forced conversions. Child marriage is a form of sexual abuse in which the child is subjected to assault and deprived of their childhood. It affects the psychological well-being and intellectual, personal and social growth of the child. Girls who marry are more likely to drop out of school than other girls. The earlier girls are married, the more children they tend to bear, which contributes to overpopulation. Child brides face greater pregnancy-related health risks and their babies are more likely to have health problems. The high rates of maternal and infant mortality in Pakistan are closely linked to early marriage. Younger girls are more likely to face domestic violence than women who marry later. 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The NCRC, a statutory body, overruled the concerns of CII on May 29 stating 'various Muslim-majority countries—including Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco—have legislated minimum marriage ages aligned with international standards which means 18 for boys and girls, recognising the long-term harm caused by child marriage'. Interestingly, in 2023 the Federal Sharia Court in the context of Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Amendment Act 2013, gave their judgement that it is the prerogative of the state to set the minimum age for marriage. Salient features of the act According to the new act the age for both girls and boys is 18 years, which is a step forward to eliminate discrimination among children and to promote gender parity. If a parent or guardian permits child marriage or fails to prevent it, they will be punished with rigorous imprisonment of two to three years with fine. The contracting parties will provide Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) by NADRA to the Nikkah registrar. If the person solemnising the Nikkah doesn't obey it, he will be punished up to one year of imprisonment and one hundred thousand rupees fine. The condition of CNIC will also be helpful in curtailing the phenomenon of forced conversion of minority girls to the majority religion, as it will decrease the chances on manipulating the age. If a male above eighteen years contracts a child marriage, his imprisonment will be two to three years along with a fine. Any form of cohabitation before the age of eighteen years in a child marriage is child abuse and the punishment for any person who induces, forces, persuades, entices or coerces any child bride or child groom to engage in cohabitation will be punished with 5 to 7 years of imprisonment or/and at least fine of a million. 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