National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza has constituted a Special Committee to review the present prices of petroleum products, to report within a week, as demanded by the opposition during negotiations on the 20th Constitutional Amendment. On January 31, the government resorted to six percent increase in the prices of petroleum products, which not only invited criticism from the opposition but also its coalition partners in the National Assembly.
A notification to this effect was issued by the National Assembly Secretariat on Wednesday, which said that the Committee has been mandated to review the present prices of petroleum products within a week. According to the notification, the committee comprises MNAs Naveed Qamar from PPP, Riaz Hussain Pirzada from PML-Q, Dr Mohammad Farooq Sattar of MQM, and Engr Khurrum Dastgir Khan and Tanveer Hussain from PML-N. However, Dr Hafeez Sheikh will be ex-officio member of the committee.
The government earlier ha promised to constitute a committee of National Assembly to review the hike in POL prices following opposition parties--PML-N, JUI-F, PPP-Sherpao, MQM, and ANP--staged walkout from both houses of parliament against the decision. Yet the matter was put in cold storage for more than two weeks.
However, sources in PML-N said that the party review of the petroleum products' prices was one of the major demands during its negotiations with the government on 20th amendment. The notification, however, was issued when Prime Minister Gilani on Tuesday gave an assurance in this regard to National Assembly after the House unanimously passed the 20th amendment.
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