CCI meetings: government accused of not meeting constitutional requirement

Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah said that the federal government is not fulfilling the constitutional requirement in relation to meetings of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) despite several requests from the provinces. The opposition leader expressed these views while speaking on the floor of the National Assembly on Wednesday. He said that even after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has not convened a single meeting of CCI "which is not good for the government and democracy."
"The government is ignoring the Constitutional requirement which is dangerous for the federal government as well as democracy. It is clearly mentioned in the Constitution that CCI should meet quarterly in a year but the government has not been fulfil in requirement." He said the government is avoiding holding the meeting of CCI because it knows that the provincial governments would take up several important issues. He said the country is facing several grave issues on internal and external fronts, adding that delay in CCI meetings is also creating a trust deficit between the provinces and the Centre.
While pointing towards the vacant seats of treasury members, the opposition leader said, "Mr speaker, you should direct the treasury benches to ensure their presence in the House." Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shafqat Mahmood said the government has to address three challenges; (i) increasing population growth, (ii) water shortages and (iii) issues of governance.
He said that unrest in society is increasing day by day and the government should invest in human resource, education and skills. He said there is a crisis of governance in the country and the government should pay attention on it. Responding to a calling attention notice moved by Shah Jee Gul Afridi regarding delay in the approval of thousands of Schedules of New Expenditure in FATA, Minister for State and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch told the House that all the Temporarily Displaced Persons will be repatriated to their respective agencies and FATA by the end of this year.
Marvi Memon said the government has increased the budget of the Benazir Income Support Programme from 40 billion rupees to 102 billion rupees to facilitate the poor. Participating in the debate, Dr Nafeesa Shah demanded that meetings of Council of Common Interests, National Economic Council and National Finance Commission should be held regularly to discuss important issues.
National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari said that his Committee has written a letter to Foreign Ministry to give in-camera briefing on the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran. "We cannot afford to disturb the relations with both the countries, Iran and Saudi Arabia, he said. Later, the Speaker adjourned the House's session due to lack of quorum.