Amin Fahim skips crucial meeting to attend PPP rally

Commerce minister fails to appear at standing committee on commerce meeting on Pakistan’s bilateral trade pacts.

ISLAMABAD:

Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim on Monday decided to take an unplanned trip to Hyderabad to attend a PPP rally, rather than attend a vital parliamentary panel meeting to discuss strategic trade issues.

Ironically, the meeting of the National Assembly standing committee on commerce was convened after consulting Fahim to discuss the trade dialogue between Pakistan and India and Pakistan’s negotiations with over a dozen countries to sign various trade pacts. The appointment of commercial counsellors for 42 foreign countries was also on the agenda.

At the start of the meeting, Commerce Secretary Munir Qureshi said that Fahim would not be able to attend the meeting as he had flown to Hyderabad to attend the PPP rally. He, however, maintained that the commerce minister had good intentions of attending the meeting.

The committee members unanimously rejected the excuse given by Qureshi.

“The road to hell is also paved with good intentions,” remarked committee Chairman Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan, while announcing his decision to postpone the meeting.

This is not the first time that a federal minister has missed an official meeting. The Senate chairman and National Assembly speaker have regularly passed rulings in the absence of federal ministers. The chief whip of the PPP, Syed Khursheed Shah, has in the past asked habitual absentee ministers to resign from their posts if they are unable to attend parliamentary sessions.

Dastgir Khan said that the date and time of the meeting was decided after consulting Fahim. He added that at the next meeting, the committee members will consider “censuring the minister for his continuous indifference to the parliamentary sessions.”

He claimed that out of a total of 61 meetings of the standing committee on commerce over the past four years, the commerce minister attended a meagre two meetings. Dastgir Khan stated that there were important strategic issues which needed the government’s input and those who were enacting policies ought to attend meetings.

He said the committee has long held apprehensions of political interference in the appointment of commercial counsellors abroad. Dastgir Khan said the pace of the liberalisation of trade with India also needed to be explained to the committee.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2012.