Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had to finally intervene to end the protracted tussle between the Ministry of Law and the Establishment Division, giving a clear direction to the ministry to expedite the finalisation of the terms of reference (ToRs) for the proposed judicial commission to ascertain the circumstances that led to the death of former Balochistan chief minister Akbar Bugti.
The formation of the commission is one of the major steps that could persuade the militant groups to trust the government’s sincerity for a dialogue process as repeated offers made by the federal and provincial governments have not yielded any result. “The prime minister has taken strict notice of the successive media reports about the government’s inability to form the commission. During a recent meeting, the prime minister was informed that the Law Ministry was reluctant to proceed with the matter on the pretext that it needed fresh directives from the Prime Minister’s Secretariat. The argument was irrelative as parliament had already passed the Balochistan Package which included the commission to probe the killing.”
“Later, the federal cabinet meeting, held on July 13 in Quetta, also approved appointing the commission within a week’s time but the Law Ministry officials were reluctant to proceed with the issue. However, the prime minister finally directed for early formation of commission,” said a source in the Establishment Division dealing with the issue. The source said the cabinet committee on implementation of Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan Package has held two meetings.
“The committee’s first meeting held on February 8, had also discussed the matter of the formation of the commission to determine the circumstances leading to the death of Akbar Bugti”. “A follow up meeting held on July 9 and chaired by the interior minister, also discussed the finalisation of the terms of reference (TORs) for the commission.
The meeting also had decided to take all the stakeholders into confidence over the commission including the armed forces,” the source said, adding that after July 2011, the committee stood practically dysfunctional due to the resignations by Rabbani and Babar Awan. The source said in mid-July, Gilani himself decided to look after the implementation status on the Balochistan Package.