As many as nine standing committees of the National Assembly and three of the Senate are still non-functional, since their chairmen have not been nominated even two years after the new parliament sworn in following October 2002 general polls. Official sources told Business Recorder that the absence of the chairmen is causing delay in clearing the legislation pieces referred to these committees by the concerned houses.
They said that the matters, which come under the jurisdiction of these committees, were either pending or being handled by the makeshift arrangements in contravention of the democratic traditions and norms.
These 'very important' committees in the National Assembly are Education, Minorities, States and Frontier Region, Foreign Affairs, Information, Parliamentary Affairs, Agriculture, Ports and Shipping and Textile Industries.
While in Senate, the committees on Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Agriculture and Rules of Procedures and Privileges do not have their chairmen.
In the National Assembly, the opposition legislators have raised the issue time and again, but Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain, for the reasons best known to him, ignored their repeated calls.
One of the most important among these committees is that of food, agriculture and livestock, which does not have its chairmen both in the National Assembly and the Senate.
Many issues of national importance that were brought in these houses both by the opposition and treasury lawmakers and referred to the agriculture committee have remained pending. Among these issues was the recent unprecedented hike in urea fertiliser immediately after the announcement of budget for fiscal 2004-05 and the frequent shortage of wheat and flour in different parts of the country, which also caused the differences among the provinces.
The issue was brought in the National Assembly by the opposition lawmakers in August through a calling attention notice and the Speaker found no other option but to form a house special committee on agriculture to discuss the matters.
But much to the surprise of all and sundry, even this special panel under the chairmanship of Khusro Bukhtiar (at that time he was not a minister) could not hold any meeting and the issues remained unheard.
Another important bill on the cross media-allowing newspaper owners to establish television or radio channels-is also still pending after it was introduced in the National Assembly on October 8, as the house committee on information also does not have its chairman.
The situation, sources said, was even worse in the Upper House, where all the important bills were being handled by a special committee, as regular Senate panel on law and justice did not have a chairman yet.
Comments
Comments are closed.