National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce on Monday postponed its meeting due to the continued absence of senior Commerce Minister, Makhdoom Amin Fahim. Soon after recitation of the Holy Quran, Engineer Khurram Dastgir, Committee Chairman, enquired from the members whether proceedings should continue or be postponed indefinitely until the Minister guarantees his presence.
One of the members of the Committee, Qudsia Arshad expressed her anger against the Minister for his persistent disregard to the parliament's forum, saying the minister had made the forum a joke. She argued that if he could go to Hyderabad to attend a public meeting of the party then surely he could attend an important meeting convened to discuss current status of trade relations with India, current status of Pakistan's negotiation for trade concessions world wide and transparency in recruitment process of new commercial counsellors.
The Chairman Committee, in his comments, said the committee wanted to seek clarifications from the Minister because a number of trade-related political decisions had been taken by the Ministry in the recent past. Dastgir argued that he left his home in Gujranwala at 5 am to attend the meeting but the Minister was here in Islamabad on Sunday night and departed at 9 am to attend a political gathering in Hyderabad.
Shireen Arshad informed the committee members that she took a flight to Karachi from Bahalwalpur because the long travel by car was not possible for her. She then waited for four hours at the airport as the onward flight to Islamabad was delayed by four hours. She also disclosed that Makhdoom Amin Fahim was also on the same flight. She said she was surprised to hear that the Minister went back to Karachi at 9 am.
Jamila Gilani and Haji Akram Ansari supported the postponement of the meeting, arguing that the Minister's attitude was disrespectful to the Committee. Acting Secretary Commerce, Munir Qureshi, informed the committee that the Minister intended to attend the meeting for which he reached Islamabad on Sunday night. According to him, the Minister was scheduled to depart for Karachi at 11.30 am after the meeting but he left early at 9 am because the flight schedule changed. Commenting on Munir Qureshi's remarks that the Minister intended to attend the meeting, Chairman Standing Committee said, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions".
Acting Secretary Commerce, who earned good words from the committee members, tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to convince them that the Minister wanted to attend the meeting, but the committee refused to accept any justification. Later, taking to Business Recorder, he said that the Minister had attended only two out of 63 meetings convened so far.
He said, on September 4, 2012, Makhdoom Amin Fahim promised to ensure his presence in the next meeting and he himself proposed the date of October 15, 2012. "We wanted to hold the meeting at 11.30 am but changed the time to 10 am at his request, even then he did not give weight to the committee," he added. In reply to a question, he said that in the next meeting of the committee the Minister, if present, would likely be censured.