Jamali unlikely to attend Balochistan Committee meeting today
Pakistan Times Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Balochistan will be held here on June 23 (Today).

To be presided over by the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) President, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the meeting is to review measures to finalize its recommendations and steps to be taken for their implementation.

The agenda of the meeting as circulated by the Senate Secretariat is to review the reports of the two sub-committees headed by Senator Wasim Sajjad and Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed.

The 36 member committee is composed of 25 Senators and 11 MNAs including two Federal Ministers and three Ministers of State.

The former Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, MNA and six other Senators have been offered special invitation to attend the meeting. They are Senators, Nisar Ahmad Memon, Muhammad Akram, Shereen Noor, Roshan Khursheed Barocha, Khalid Ranjha and S M Zafar.

It is also learnt that Legal Advisor to the President, Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada and the Chairman National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) Danial Aziz, MNA have also been asked to attend the meeting.

Pirzada and Zafar have been asked to suggest recommendations on issues, wherever constitutional amendments would be necessary to incorporate the recommendations of the committee.

Danial Aziz would place the NRB point of view before the committee in connection with issues relating to water distribution between the provinces, NFC Award and the Council of Common Interest (CCI).

Despite receipt of special invitations, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali had avoided to make himself available at the committees’ previous meetings. When approached by Pakistan Observer, Jamali confirmed that the invitation had been delivered to him. He was however reluctant to confirm his participation despite the importance he attaches to the affairs of the province he himself belongs.

Jamali was reminded that he had preferred to remain away from the previous meetings of the Parliamentary Committee on Balochistan. He simply commented that ‘I was away from the Federal Capital’.

‘But this time you are very much here, so you would be taking part in the deliberations’, he was told. The former prime minister however kept the cards close to his chest, maintaining ‘I can’t answer to such questions’.

The notice of the meeting and the agenda circulated to the invitees gives the impression as if the sub-committee dealing with matters connected with constitutional issues headed by the Leader of the House in the Senate Wasim Sajjad has been able to submit its recommendations to the Committee.

But indications gathered from the concerned quarters speak the fact hat Sajjad is yet far behind the goal given to him. His Committee has so far failed to make any substantial progress.

The Wasim Sajjad Committee is faced with the thorny issues connected with constitutional matters and had fallen into many controversies and difference of perceptions. His preoccupations in the legal profession and FAST and engagements as the Leader of the House in the Senate spare little time to devote for other assignments that also include the Parliamentary Committee for Balochistan.

Although the agenda suggests that the meeting will review the reports of the two sub-committees but there are no indications that Wasim Sajjad had been able to finalize the report of his sub committee.

However the sub-committee headed by Mushahid Hussain Sayed dealing with administrative issues had given its recommendations now lying with Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain so that he could integrate the two and submit his final assessment before the Parliament. The public representatives have been critical of the functioning of the Committee because it had bitterly failed timely accomplishment of the assignment.

Despite its large composition and lapse of plenty of time, the Committee has failed to complete its job. It was scheduled to submit the report in January last. It is almost half a year behind the schedule with no sign in sights to end up with any sort of conclusion.●