April 1, 2006	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 2, 1427

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QUETTA, March 31: Chief Minister Jam Mohammad Yousuf and legislators from treasury and opposition benches met here on Friday to discuss issues relating to a committee formed by the Balochistan assembly on problems being faced by the province.

The meeting was attended by leader of opposition Kachkol Ali, Senior Minister Maulana Wasay of the MMA, Finance Minister Syed Ehsan Shah of the BNP (Awami), Sardar Sanaullah Zehri of the National Party, Mir Akbar Mengal of the BNP (Mengal), Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal of the PMAP and Shafique Ahmed of the PPP Parliamentarians.

No representative of the Jamhoori Watan Party attended the meeting.

The legislators termed the formation of the committee an important step for the province’s development and said that the provincial assembly was the appropriate forum to help settle issues.

An official statement issued after the meeting said that consultations and cooperation between treasury and opposition members could yield positive results.

The statement said that several suggestions were considered and legislators agreed to make the committee more effective by finalising its proposals in the next meeting.

Though the official statement claimed progress but sources close to the BNP (Mengal) were not optimistic about a positive outcome.

The sources said that the meeting could not finalise names of committee members from the opposition’s side as neither the JWP nor the BNP (Mengal) had made any decision about their parties’ representation.

The sources pointed out that Nawab Marri, Nawab Bugti and Sardar Mengal did not endorse the committee which, they said, was not empowered to resolve the Balochistan issue. They said that security forces’ engagement in Dera Bugti and Kohlu and President Pervez Musharraf’s attacks on three Baloch sardars posed hurdles to the committee.