Provinces panel unfazed by PML-N boycott

Asks members to send proposals within 10 days.

ISLAMABAD:

The parliamentary commission on the creation of new provinces in Punjab decided on Monday to press ahead with its task amid a boycott of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and asked its members to send their proposals within 10 days.

“If the PML-N [wants to] it should attend the meeting and take up issues it has with regard to the commission,” Chairman of the commission, Senator Farhatullah Babar, said after the meeting.

During the meeting, which was held behind closed doors, the commission defined its terms of references (TORs) and decided to press ahead in the absence of PML-N members, who have boycotted the meetings since the commission’s inception.

Briefing the media, Senator Babar said that the commission’s duty was to compile a report and give suggestions over the creation of new provinces, as legislation over the subject had to be done by parliament. He said that even though there was no time limit to complete the task, the commission will submit its findings as early as possible.

Later on, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan of PML-N clarified his party’s position and said it was not dragging its feet over the division of Punjab. “It is the Punjab Assembly which had passed a unanimous resolution for the creation of new provinces,” he added. Nisar did not give any indication whether his party would attend any future meetings.

The PML-N should not have passed the resolution if it was not serious about the cause, he said, while raising objections over the composition of the 12-member commission.

Nisar said that the National Assembly speaker had no right to nominate members of the PML-N for the commission and that it was the prerogative of his party.

In addition, all three PML-N members of the commission belong to the region for which there has been the demand for the creation new provinces, and the rest of Punjab has no representation.

“There is no representation from Vehari to Attock,” Nisar added, referring to the rest of Punjab.

He claimed that the PPP-led federal government was using the issue of the new provinces to gain political mileage, saying it was reflected from the fact that it had swept the issue under the carpet over the last four months, but after suffering a heavy defeat in the by-elections, it has been brought up once again.

Nisar also raised objection over Senator Babar being the chairman of the commission, saying “[A] staff officer of President Asif Ali Zardari from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has been made the head of the commission.”

In July of this year, President Zardari had asked the National Assembly speaker to formally initiate the process for carving out two separate provinces in Punjab and directed the commission to submit a report to the speaker, as well as to the prime minster within 30 days of its notification in the official gazette.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2012.