PCNP appoints Senator Farhatullah Babar as its chairman

In its first meeting, Parliamentary Commission on New Provinces (PCNP) appointed Senator Farhatullah Babar, who is also spokesperson to the presidency, its chairman.

However, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) didn’t participate in the first session of the commission for forming two new provinces in Punjab.

Nine out of the 12 nominated members were present in the meeting held in the parliament house here, as the three members of ML-N nominated by the Speaker national assembly in protest boycotted the meeting.

Earlier, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar had rejected the commission, calling for raising his party’s representation to 50 per cent.

He was of the opinion that the proposed body was meant only for carving two provinces out of Punjab, adding that the PML-N must have a greater say by virtue of being the biggest party in the provincial assembly.

Farhatullah Babar while talking to the media outlined details of the first ever meeting of the commission, saying that the resolution passed in the National Assembly on May 21 in and in the Punjab Assembly on May 09 were discussed in the sitting.

He observed, “Today it was decided that the commission will request members of Pakistan Muslim League –Nawaz (PML-N) to, as per their nomination, participate in the commission so that the resolutions passed in the assemblies can be taken forward”.

He continued that the commission would hold another session on August 29 for framing draft rules and adopting them to increase their efficiency, which is the need for all commission panels.

While replying to a query about creating provinces within provinces, the chairman said that there had been no requests by other federating units. He, however, said that this commission go to other provinces and say it will form more provinces when they received any such requests.

He added, “This proposal has come from Punjab itself; therefore, the work of the commission is limited to this province alone. When you talk about creating a new province, it requires amending the constitution and amendment of the constitution cannot be handed over to any one province or political party”.

He was of the opinion that amendments always take place with agreement from all parties and provinces and this will hopefully happen with consent of all stakeholders.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Aug 28 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.