Frustrated with the slow-response from authorities concerned and facing functional overlapping from two parliamentary panels, the chairman and members of Special Parliamentary Committee on the All-Parties Conference (APC) asked the National Assembly (NA) Speaker to merge the APC committee with the Parliamentary Committee on National Security headed by Senator Raza Rabbani.
A source in the parliament told Pakistan Today that most APC members, including chairman Raja Pervaiz Ashraf were unwilling to run the parliamentary body formed in November 2011 to oversee the implementation of joint resolutions of the parliament on national security and the resolution passed on September 30.
The source said, “The committee has not met for the last two-and-a-half month since its chairman Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and committee members find it hard to formulate an agenda for meeting.” He said committee members from a number of parliamentary parties had opined that the committee had no scope and could not be run parallel to Parliamentary Committee on National Security.
He said the committee chairman with consent of members had officially asked the speaker, to consider merging the special Parliamentary Committee on APC with Parliamentary Committee on National Security to avoid overlaps.
The committee constituted after delays in mid-November 2011 under unanimous resolution passed by an APC hosted by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on September 29 in wake of US threats to Pakistan to launch a military offensive against the Haqqani network in North Waziristan. It was agreed that ‘a Parliamentary Committee will be formed to oversee the implementation of earlier resolutions as well as this resolution and progress on the same be made public on monthly basis.’
Contrary to the spirit of the above mentioned clause which bounds the committee to monitor progress on the implementation of 13-point resolution, the parliamentary panel has failed to produce a single report despite a lapse of a number of months. Committee members include MNAs Raja Pervez Ashraf (chairman), Sherry Rehman, Dr Ayatullah Durrani, Khawaja Mohammad Asif, Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, Dr Attiya Inayatullah, Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi, Bushra Gohar, Maulana Attaur Rehman, Haji Khuda Bux Rajar and Munir Khan Orakzai.
A committee member seeking anonymity said the constitution of the committee was itself against the spirit of APC resolution as only members of the National Assembly were inducted into it without any Senate representation while the APC resolution had demanded a ‘parliamentary committee’.
