Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday constituted an 11-member committee to engage with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and address their concerns after PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari expressed frustration with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in a video statement last week.
The committee members include Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Minister of Defense Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister of Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar, and Minister of Economic Affairs Ahad Khan Cheema, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
“The prime minister has tasked the committee to hold detailed consultations with the PPP to ensure political cooperation and resolve issues,” the PMO said. “The committee will engage with members designated by the PPP to outline the future course of action through dialogue.”
Additional members include Minister of State and Frontier Regions Amir Maqam, Prime Minister’s Advisor Rana Sanaullah, Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan, Senior Minister of Punjab Maryam Aurangzeb, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Jaffar Khan Mandokhail, and Bashir Ahmad Memon.
Last week, Bilawal criticised the center for “failure to meet agreements with PPP” and “not consulting” on issues such as shutdown of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
“We have not been consulted regarding slowing down of internet speed, and closure of VPNs. The decision makers don’t know about the ABC of VPN,” he said in the video.
PPP chairman lamented that the federal government approved the canals agreement when he was busy in the 26th amendment bill. Bilawal said the way the government made action on the canals was not right.
“The federal government has failed to fulfil its commitment which it made before the passage of 26th constitutional amendments regarding provision of due share to the provinces that was why he had stepped back from Judicial Commission in protest,” he added.
On Thursday, Bilawal also formed a nine-member committee for taking up issues with the federal government, a press release said.
The members of the committee include Raja Pervez Ashraf, Naveed Qamar, Sherry Rehman, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah, Chief Minister Balochistan Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, Governor Punjab Sardar Saleem Haider, Governor KP Faisal Karim Kundi and Haider Gilani.
The committee will remain in contact with the federal government and highlight issues and problems among the provinces and federation. It has been directed to present its report in the upcoming meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the party scheduled next month, according to the party statement.
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