The government on Wednesday formed a six-member special parliamentary committee to review the increase in petroleum prices. However, three members of the committee are federal ministers and one is an adviser to the prime minister on finance, who would be an ex-officio member. National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza formed the committee. Per the notification, the committee has been mandated to review the current POL prices within one week. The committee will comprise Water and Power Minister Naveed Qamar, who would represent the PPP, Minister for Technical and Professional Education Riaz Hussain Pirzada of the PML-Q, Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Farooq Sattar from the MQM and Khurrum Dastgir and Rana Tanveer Hussain from the PML-N. However, Adviser to the PM on Finance Hafeez Shaikh would be the ex-officio member of the committee.
The committee has been formed in line with the commitment by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on the floor of the National Assembly after a unanimous resolution passed by the members of the Lower House of parliament asking the government to withdraw petroleum prices. The government had increased the prices of petroleum products despite recommendation by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to not increase the petroleum prices on January 31.
However, it is interesting to note that the government had also formed a parliamentary committee last year to oversee the petroleum prices but the committee only met once.
