JK LA approves two separate law draft bills ’Timber Trade (Nationalization (Repeal) Act 2020’ And ‘Criminal Law (3rd Amendment) Act 2020’:

Altaf hamid Rao;

MIRPUR, (Parliament Times):  Azad Jammu Kashmir Legislative Assembly Wednesday unanimously approved two separate law draft bills including ’Timber Trade (Nationalization (Repeal) Act 2020’ and ‘Criminal Law (3rd Amendment) Act 2020’.

Speaking on the floor of the house, which met in the State’s metropolis on Wednesday with Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir in the chair, AJK minister for disaster management authority Ahmed Raza Qadri said that since incidents of the criminal assault against children has unfortunately become a common exercise in our society, the AJK government brought the law to overcome the immoral practice. The minister underlined that that law has been promulgated after the affected people had used to avoid lodging reports about such cases with the police in view of the lesser punishment in the prevailing law. The minister stated that the promulgation of the amended law, the accused found guilty of the criminal assault against the children under 18-year of age will be awarded death sentence, life imprisonment, fine or the punishment of depriving the sexual strength by the learned court of law. Moreover the accused in such immoral acts found involved in attempt to commit the criminal assault against the children under 18 years of age could be awarded the rigorous imprisonment of 5 to 10 years by the learned court of law.

Moving the draft bill of ’Timber Trade (Nationalization (Repeal) Act 2020’, Forests minister Sardar Mir Akbar Khan said that since the department of AKLASC (Azad Kashmir Logging & Sawmill Corporation) has been abolished, the amended Act has been brought into being to ensure the transfer of the powers related to the AKLASC to the State Forest Department for the future. “All the earlier AKLASC powers related to forests would now have been transferred to the Forest Department”, he added.