ISLAMABAD, March 13: The 38-member parliamentary committee on Balochistan is likely to meet on March 16 or 17 to try to reach consensus and finalize its report on a constitutional amendment package pertaining to the four provinces as well as financial matters of Balochistan.

The Wasim Sajjad parliamentary sub-committee constituted to deal with constitutional issues of provincial harmony at its meeting on Saturday had failed to finalize a draft to be put up to the main committee owing to differences between the ruling PML representatives and those of other parliamentary parties.

There are several sets of recommendations before the sub-committee, including those submitted by the Baloch nationalists, MQM, PPP and MMA.

While the ruling PML has recommended handing over 28 items from the 40-item concurrent list to the provinces, other parties in the committee

have demanded greater provincial autonomy by leaving only three or four subjects for the centre.

The recommendations about the provincial autonomy to the extent of four subjects with the centre, sources said, were not acceptable to the centre and that was the main stumbling block in the way of a consensus package.

The sources told Dawn that there was little chance of the main parliamentary committee succeeding in working out a consensus package and President Gen Pervez Musharraf might intervene with his own constitutional as well as concessions package for Balochistan.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the ruling PML president and chairman of the parliamentary committee on Balochistan, had announced on the floor of the National Assembly that the final report of the committee would be tabled in parliament by March 17.

Mr Hussain, who left for Germany last week, is returning on Monday.

He is expected to hold meetings with President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz before the committee takes up final recommendations.

The leader of opposition in the Senate and a member of the parliamentary committee, Mian Raza Rabbani, who attended the meeting of the Sajjad sub-committee on Saturday, expressed pessimism about a possibility of the main parliamentary committee reaching an accord.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Rabbani said: “The ball is in the government’s court. It is them to try to find a way to satisfy other members of the committee or to go for incorporating the proposals forwarded by the ruling PML.”

He said that the sub-committee had failed to reach a consensus due to differences between proposals forwarded by the PML and those of the other parliamentary representatives.

It is for the government to try to reach unanimity by accommodating the point of view of other parties because only the government can get the desired constitutional amendments adopted by two thirds majority.

He said the government should make exhaustive efforts to bring back to the committee the members belonging to Balochistan. Otherwise, he added, the draft report would remain incomplete and unacceptable to them.