A bill to provide a legal framework for the protection of witnesses was passed without amendment by the National Assembly on Friday evening despite arguments by the parliamentary opposition that it failed to take into account modern challenges.
Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira described the Witness Protection Bill 2017 as a rehash of a similar piece of legislation passed by the House in 2006 under the previous PPP/C administration and she charged that in its current form it would do little to protect witnesses.
“The bill today is defective because very little serious changes for the good have been made and in fact what we have is a deficient bill again,” Teixeira told the National Assembly.
