9 bills including income tax, dumping duty passed by NA
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Friday passed nine bills including 'The Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2024 and The Anti-Dumping Duties (Amendment) Bill, 2025'.
The house passed, 'The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2025'' bound a Civil Servant of BS-17 and above to declare his/her domestic and foreign assets, his/her spouse and dependent children.
There were two bills out of nine of private members' bills as agenda of the members took up by suspending the remaining business of the house through adopting a motion.
Opposition in NA blocks govt's Income Tax bill
The private members' bills are; 'The Trade Organizations (Second Amendment) Bill, 2025 of Syed Ali Qasim Gillani of PPP and The Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Bill, 2024 of Sharmila Faruqui of PPP.
The opposition particularly of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday blocked 'The Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2024' but today, the opposition neither strongly opposed nor protested against the legislation of the government.
The bills which were passed included: Income Tax Amendment Bill, 2024,the Anti-Dumping Duties Amendment Bill, 2025, Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Amendment Bill, 2024, the Extradition Amendment Bill, 2025, Pakistan Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2024, The Naturalization Amendment Bill, 2024, the Civil Servants Amendment Bill, 2025, The Trade Organizations (Second Amendment) Bill, 2025and The Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Bill, 2024.
The Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2024 is already in the field as the government had introduced it last year in the form of an ordinance.
The purpose of 'The Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2024' is to amend the Income Tax (Amendment) Ordinance, 2024 in the National Assembly.
According to objects and reasons of the bill, the amendments are being introduced with immediate effect through an Ordinance, in order to remove difficulties faced by the taxpayer in implementation of higher tax rates on income from federal government securities on the basis of ADR ratio. Concomitantly, few counter measures have also been incorporated in this Ordinance to rationalize standard tax rate on whole of the business income of banking companies.
The purpose for passage of 'The Anti-Dumping Duties (Amendment) Bill, 2025' is made amendments in sub-section (1)through the Anti-Dumping Duties (Amendment) Act, 2022shall be deemed to have taken effect on and from the 1st day of July, 2020.
According to objects and reasons of the bill, Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives on the advice of Law and Justice Division conveyed to initiate further amendment in the subject Law to give retrospective effect to cover the period from the financial year 2020-21. In this regard it is submitted that two Chinese-grant-funded projects in Gwadar, (Pak-China Friendship Hospital' and 'New Gwadar International Airport') have been subjected to the Anti-dumping duties during FY 2020-21 and 2021-22.
The Chinese-grant-funding does not cater for such duties. The relevant department also does not have any provision for payment of these duties. It was therefore decided during the 'progress review meeting of Gwadar Projects held on 5thOctober 2022', that the amendment in the Anti-Dumping Act would be given retrospective effect (to cover the period from FY 2020-21).'
According to clause 02 'The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2025, 'new section 15-A is inserted in the Civil Servants Act, 1973, 'Declaration of Assets;- the declaration of assets of a Civil Servant of BS-17 and above his spouse and dependent children, including domestic and foreign assets and liabilities, as may be prescribed, shall be digitally filed with the Federal Board of Revenue and same shall be publicly available, through Federal Board of Revenue in accordance with the rules as may be prescribed.'
According to 'The Trade Organizations (Second Amendment) Bill, 2025, under the Trade Organizations(Amendment) Act,2025, the two years' tenure for office bearers under sub-section (l) of section 11 shall apply only to those elected on or after the enactment of the trade organizations (Amendment) Act, 2025.
It is in the interest of the organizations and all trade bodies that the election to be conducted in accordance with the Trade Organizations (Amendment) Act,2022, to ensure the continued smooth operation of bodies established under the Act. This provision is disruptive to the smooth functioning of trade bodies, particularly the federation, chambers, and Association.
Therefore, it is essential to omit sub-section (1A) of section ll of the Trade Organizations Act, 2013, as inserted by the Trade Organizations (Amendment) Act, 2025, from the date of its enactment.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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Express Tribune
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The age of consent & the borders of belief
Child rights organisations and advocates, along with concerned citizens, have warmly welcomed the passage of recent legislation on child marriages, describing it as a landmark step toward protecting the rights and well-being of children. 'The passage of the ICT Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2025 is a defining moment for Pakistan. This legislation affirms our national commitment to protecting children—particularly girls—from harmful practices that rob them of their childhood, health, and future. By setting 18 as the minimum legal age for marriage, we are not only upholding constitutional and international obligations, but also empowering our girls to pursue education, opportunity, and leadership. We also call on the provinces of Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to set the same precedent and harmonise their respective marriage laws in line with the rights and best interests of the child', Ayesha Raza Farooq, Chairperson of the National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) said. 'While every piece of legislation leaves room for future improvement which may be addressed sometimes in the rules and sometimes through further amendments, this Act sets a strong precedent in curbing the menace of child marriage," explained child rights expert Syed Miqdad Mehdi. The enactment of the ICT Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2025 marks a significant step forward in the protection of children's rights in ICT. It is a comprehensive legal framework that not only criminalises the practice by making it a cognizable offence, but also rightly categorises it as a form of child abuse and trafficking, aligning with both national and international child protection standards. 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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Pakistan is obligated to align national laws with the ratified conventions and to implement these laws. The approval of the new law is at an important time when Pakistan's 6th and 7th combined periodic reports will be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. This development will be observed positively by the Committee, as it shows Pakistan's inclination to satisfy earlier recommendations Under the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), countries around the world, including Pakistan, have pledged to end marriages before age 18 by the year 2030. Goal 5 of the SDGs focuses on gender equality and includes target 5.3 to end child marriages. What next? An inclusive set of legal, policy and administrative measures is required to combat child marriages in the country. The following steps are urgently required to save children from the nuisance of child marriage. The Federal Government should make rules for ICT Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2025 without wasting any time. 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Just administrative measures are required for the implementation. For implementation of the Punjab Sikh Anand Karaj Marriage Act 2018 a set of administrative measures is required. A vibrant local government system should be in place to work with Anand Karaj Registrar and the Sangat to register the marriage. Local government bodies must be empowered to ensure that legal safeguards are implemented in letter and spirit. Special safeguards will be needed for any out-standing victims of child marriage. Their protection, privacy, confidentiality, restitution, trauma healing, rehabilitation and fair legal participation must be prioritised. There must be pro bono legal facilities and expedited procedures before, during and post-trial. The state and government personnel (judges, police, medical officers, etc.) involved during the reporting, investigation and prosecution of child marriage cases should be sensitised and held accountable on the issue. All human rights institutions and civil society organisations must support the cause and advocate for the enactment of robust child protection laws. A nationwide campaign can help raise awareness on the damaging effects of child marriages. The public should be made aware of the harms associated with such practices, as well as punitive laws pertaining to child marriages and related crimes. Parents need to be more sensitive regarding child protection so that their children are not victims of pedophilia and child sexual abuse. To combat child marriages, education for every child is a must. This will help enable our future generations to live healthier and freer lives in a more thriving Pakistan. Nabila Feroz Bhatti is a human rights activist and columnist. She is Member Working Group at National Commission on the Rights of Child. She can be connected at nabilaferoz@ or on X: @NabilaFBhatti All facts and information are the sole responsibility of the author
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a day ago
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