December 3, 2005	Saturday	Shawwal 30, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 2: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz might announce partial acceptance of the Terms of Reference for the parliamentary committee on earthquake as submitted to him by the opposition parties a few days ago after these were studied by a ministerial committee, official sources told Dawn on Friday.

Prime Minister Aziz had announced formation of a 19-member committee (nine members each from the coalition government and opposition) under him to oversee and monitor the financial and administrative aspects of rehabilitation and reconstruction of earthquake-hit areas of the NWFP and AJK.

Opposition sources are confident that the government would most likely accept the opposition’s Terms of Reference partially and invite it for further dialogue where both sides differ.

The combined opposition rejected the government’s Terms of Reference and had prepared its own set of Terms of Reference after the preliminary meeting of the parliamentary committee, chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Later, they delivered it to the prime minister’s secretariat for consideration.

The viewpoint of the opposition was that besides that they did agree on the broad principles but wanted to make the parliamentary committee more powerful then merely a supervisory body.

The opposition leaders said that any future decision whether to participate in parliamentary committee meetings would be taken after the government’s response on their Terms of Reference. They said that they had participated in the first meeting as representatives of the opposition and not as regular members.

The deputy secretary general of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Liaqat Baloch, on being contacted for his comments told Dawn that an informal contact was made by the prime minister’s house on the issue.

He said that from what he had gathered from the government’s response it seemed that he was willing to accept the opposition’s Terms of Reference but would like some more discussion on matters pertaining to the appointment of army generals at the ERRA and FRC.

The opposition in its recommended Terms of Reference has suggested clipping the unbridled power of ERRA to make it answerable to the committee.

The opposition wanted to have financial accountability of both the high-powered bodies dealing with the earthquake through the parliament for which it sought civilian control over the relief and reconstruction work.

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