ISLAMABAD: The Senate standing committee on law and justice on Tuesday directed the ministry of law to see if there was a precedent for reserving labour seats in parliaments of other countries.

The committee issued the direction while discussing a billto reserve seatsforlabourers in the parliament and provincial assemblies.

The bill was initially submitted by Senators Raza Rabbani and Saeed Ghani in August 2013. However, Mr Rabbani has become the chairman Senate, while Mr Ghani is defending the bill.

According to the draft of the bill, the Constitution provides for reserved seats for special categories in the parliament and provincial assemblies. The draft bill stated that one labour representative should be nominated on the reserved seats from each prov-ince. Moreover, two seats should be reserved for labourers in each provincial assembly.

Senator Ghani said that despite labour laws, workers still suffer all over the country. Even labour leaders faced victimisation at the hands of their employers and so they should get representation in the parliament.

Opposing the bill, Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq said though she came to parliament on a reserved seat, she believed women can only be empowered if they were elected through direct elections.

`Merit cannot be ensured because of the quota. So the issue should be discussed in detail and then an appropriate decision should be taken. It can be made binding on political parties to give tickets to labourers, she said.

Secretary Ministry of Law retired Justice Mohammad Raza Khan said Mr Rabbani had drafted the 18th Amendment and could have included the labour quota in the bill.

`According to the law, a population census has to be carried out before the creation of new seats in the parliament. So it would be better to wait for the next census.

`Moreover, there are many other segments in society who are not represented in the parliament. If labourers are given representation,others would also have to be accommodated, he said.

Mohammad Javed Abbasi, the chairperson of the committee, said if seats were reserved, traders, farmers and others would also demand their representation in the parliament.

`We should see whether other countries have reserved seats for labourers before taking a decision,` he said.

Senator Ghani told Dawn that he did not have arecord onreserved seatsin othercountries.

`However, I am sure a number of countries have reserved seats in their parliaments.

Moreover, in the Indian Act of 1935, there were reserved seats for labourers,` he said.

Funding to bar councils stopped During a briefing on the mechanism for the allocation of grants-in-aid to bar councils, the secretary law said funding to the bar councils and bar associations had been stopped due to the objections raised by the auditor general and accountant general.

`During the last few years, due to political motives millions of rupees were distributed among the district and tehsil bar councils even without the approval of the prime minister,` he said.