NA body approves bill allowing paid maternity, paternity leaves
(AP Photo/Jennifer Coate, March of Dimes Foundation)
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s (NA) Standing Committee on Law and Justice has unanimously passed a bill to give leaves to the father along with the mother on the birth of a child.
According to the report, a bill passed by the NA’s Standing Committee has declared the mother entitled to six months’ leave and the father one month’s leave on the birth of a child.
The text of the bill states that on the birth of the second child the mother will be given four months leave and the father one month leave, similarly on the birth of the third child the mother will be given three months leave and the father one month leave.
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Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Member National Assembly (MNA) Shazia Marri wrote on Twitter that the law would apply in the public and private institutions of Islamabad. She said that the law was drafted a year ago by Senator Quratulain Marri, a Member of Parliament from Sanghar.
Shazia Marri expressed happiness over the passage of the bill and said that after its approval by the Senate, it has now been approved by the NA Standing Committee. Under the law, women from other provinces of Pakistan like Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan will be given 12 weeks leave while mothers from Sindh will be given 16 weeks leave.
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According to Article 4 of the Maternity Benefit Ordinance, public and private institutions will pay the full salary during the holidays. Earlier, a bill was introduced in the Senate a year ago for a six-month leave for a working mother and a three-month leave for a father.
Quratulain Marri, a female member who introduced the bill, had said that maternal and child care was the responsibility of the husband.
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