ISLAMABAD - With an agreement between both the main political parties to thrash out differences on the composition of parliamentary commission on formation of new provinces in Punjab, the meeting of the panel scheduled for Monday was deferred.
The leadership of PPP and PML-N are going to hold their first formal meeting in this connection on Tuesday (today), while other contentious issues would also figure in the parleys besides the core issue of the composition of the Parliamentary Commission on new provinces, which was unilaterally formed by the National Assembly speaker, without getting formal approval from the PML-N regarding the nomination of its members in the body.
Sources in the PPP informed that their senior party leaders Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Shah and Federal Minister for Defence Syed Naveed Qamar would meet with PML-N stalwarts Senator Ishaq Dar, Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan Abbasi and Pervez Rasheed to thrash out differences between the two sides over the composition of the commission. It is likely that some of the demands of the PML-N would be accepted which could ultimately lead to the re-composition of the parliamentary body.
It is pertinent to mention that a couple of days back, the chairman of the commission, Senator Farhatullah Babar, had come up with a statement terming the re-composition of the commission out of question. Babar was not available for comments on this latest development.
Besides narrowing down differences on the composition of the parliamentary commission on new provinces, the leaders of both the parties would also discuss the modalities of caretaker setup to hold the next general elections. The longstanding issue of new accountability law would also figure in the meeting as PPP was eager to have new accountability apparatus in place before the next general elections.
Similarly, evolving consensus on the caretaker setup would be a matter of utmost importance for both the ruling PPP and main opposition PML-N as both the parties are not ready to surrender their right in this connection.