The commission on new provinces in Punjab would meet today (Monday) to elect its “interim chairman”, as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz members have planned to boycott the maiden session being held at Parliament House. The meeting would start at 11am at Constitution Room on the second floor, also called Committee Room No 5. A member of the commission told Pakistan Today that Pakistan People’s Party Senator Farhatullah Babar may be appointed the commission’s chairman. However, since Babar was hectically involved with President Asif Ali Zardari, PPP MNA from Bahawalpur Arif Aziz Shaikh might be appointed an interim chairman. Shaikh, who hails from Bahawalpur, has publicly claimed that he would be appointed the chairman of the commission.
On the other hand, former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is making attempts to get his son Ali Musa Gilani elected the chairman of the commission. Reflecting the government’s commitment for creation of new provinces, National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza had constituted an incomplete commission on August 16 for the creation of new provinces in Punjab after a two-and-a-half-month delay. The speaker, who is in the US these days for a minor surgery, constituted the commission in pursuance of the message received from the president and authorization by the National Assembly on July 11, 2012. The president had actually sent the message on May 30. Despite the long delay, the speaker could gather names of only 12 members of the commission, while two members of the Punjab Assembly are yet to be nominated, a notification issued to this effect by the National Assembly Secretariat said. “Two members of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab would be included as and when their nominations are received from the Punjab Provincial Assembly Speaker,” the notification added. The commission includes Farahatullah Babar, Syeda Sughra Imam, Haji Mohammad Adeel, Kamil Ali Agha, Malik Rafique Rajwana, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Arif Aziz Sheikh, Jamshaid Dasti, Syed Ali Musa Gilani, Tehmina Daultana, Saud Majeed and Dr Farooq Sattar.
