ISLAMABAD: The tabling of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (Amendment) Bill 2015 was deferred from Thursday to the next joint session of Parliament.

Law Minister Zahid Hamid suggested the tabling of the bill should be deferred without providing a reason. Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani had also on Wednesday written to the National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, requesting he does not take up the bill during the joint session on Thursday.`The passage of the Bill from the Joint Sitting of Parliament will tantamount to give an impression that the government can bypass the constitutional provisions by manipulating the rules and procedures. This is why we say that there should be equality of votes between the two houses of Parliament as even the entire members of Senate of Pakistan (which are 104) cannot outnumber the members of [the] National Assembly (which are 342). This is [the] negation of the intention of the drafters of the Constitution,who envisioned Senate as a House of Federation,` Mr Rabbani said in his three paged letter.

President Mamnoon Hussein promulgated the PMDC (Amendment) Bill 2015 last year on August 26 due to which the PMDC executive council was dissolved and an acting management committee headed by retired Maj Gen Azhar Kiyani was formed.

The committee advised that elections be held within 120 days and they were conducted in Sindh, Balochistan, Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fataon Dec 5 and in Punjab on Dec 15 last year and the control of the council was handed over to the new, elected management committee.

As the ordinance was to lapse after 120 days, Minister National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar tabled the bill the NA floor on December 11, 2015 and the ordinance was extended for another 120 days through a resolution.

The bill of the ordinance was referred to the Senate but PPP Senators Kareem Khawaja and Altizaz Ahsan suggested it bereferred to the Council of Common Interest, as the council regulates institutions across the country, and therefore, voting could not be held.

The presidential ordinance lapsed on April 24, which spurred debate over the status of the council and if should be allowed to regulate medical and dental institutions in the country. Some legal experts including President SC Bar Association Barrister Ali Zafar say the council cannot function unless the bill sails through Parliament.-Ikram Junaldi