Bahawalpur Janoobi Punjab: Senate panel fails to take up new province bill

Committee members from PPP and MQM did not attend the meeting.

ISLAMABAD:

The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice assigned to discuss a proposed constitutional bill, seeking the creation of Bahawalpur Janoobi Punjab province, failed to make any headway in its maiden meeting on Wednesday further complicating the fate of the newly proposed contentious amendment.

Committee members from the PPP and MQM did not attend the meeting despite the fact that the ruling party has been vocal for the cause of the Province.

Two of the 12-member Senate Panel forced the committee chairman Senator Kazim Khan of the PPP to postpone the scheduled meeting for indefinite period. Senators Raja Zafarul Haq and Zaffar Ali Shah of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, who attended the meeting, termed it a failure of the government, which, according to them, was playing politics on the serious constitutional matter.

Last week, the government amid strong protest by the opposition and reservations of some of its own allies tabled the 24th constitutional amendment bill to the Upper House of Parliament,  which was later referred to the Senate Law Panel for further deliberations. Law Minister Farooq H Naek moved the proposed bill in the Senate. The panel was tasked to send its recommendations back to the House this week.

“The government failed to develop consensus even among its own members [of the committee] on this controversial bill,” observed Senator Raja Zafarul Haq. Talking to The Express Tribune, he said, the PML-N has already rejected the report prepared by the commission on creation of new provinces. Further decision either to attend the Senate panel’s meeting or not will be taken by the top leadership of the party next week, he added.



The PML-N, the largest opposition both in Senate and National Assembly, has already rejected PPP’s move to carve new provinces in Punjab by terming it a political stunt as general elections are around the corner.

Three members of the committee, Senators Muzafar Hussain Shah of PML-Functional, Farogh Nasim of MQM and Ahmed Hassan of PPP told The Express Tribune that they could not attend the meeting due to some personal engagements.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2013.