The federal government had announced that a committee will be formed in the next session of the National Assembly. However, the session that started on October 3 ended on October 18 but no nominations were made, sources within the National Assembly Secretariat told The Express Tribune. The speaker had written to the party’s parliamentary head but received a poor response.
Submissions have already been made by two other major political parties, the Nawaz and Quaid factions of the Pakistan Muslim League, and smaller parties such as the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP). Fata parliamentarians have also made their nomination.
The PML-Q, sources said, had sent three names even though the speaker had asked them to send one or two names. However, they did not divulge which names had been sent. PML-Q’s information secretary Kamil Ali Agha also appeared unaware of who had been nominated.
PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that the PML-N had forwarded three names, those of Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan Abbasi, Abdul Qadir Baloch and Khawaja Muhammad Asif.
MQM has finalised the name of senior member Haider Abbas Rizvi while Fata parliamentarians have proposed the name of Munir Orakzai, the parliamentary leader of MNAs from Fata.
PML-Functional has nominated Haji Khuda Bux Rajar to represent the party.
The only woman to have been nominated so far is ANP’s Bushra Gohar.
PPP secretary information Qamar Zaman Kaira was not available for comment.
The conference, held on September 29, was called after top administration officials in Washington accused Pakistan’s premier spy agency the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of using the Haqqani network of Afghan militants as a ‘proxy’ to spread violence in Afghanistan and threatened to launch a unilateral strike in case of inaction.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2011.
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