June 25, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 09, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 24: A constitutional package on provincial autonomy, envisaging handing over to the provinces 22 of the 47 items on the concurrent list, is almost ready and will be presented in the next session of the National Assembly.

This was stated by federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Salim Saifullah Khan while talking to Dawn on Sunday.

The package envisages enhancement of the Senate’s powers with reference to the federal budget and top-level appointments, Mushahid Hussain Sayed, a member of the parliamentary committee, told Dawn.

He said the report prepared by Salim Saifullah with inputs from Senator Wasim Sajjad had been reached over to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain who would discuss it with the party leadership and the prime minister before its submission to the cabinet for approval.

Meanwhile, non-governmental organisation Pildat is holding a conference on provincial autonomy in Islamabad on July 3 in collaboration with the ruling PML in which politicians will offer suggestions on the subject.

It may be mentioned that Sindh and Balochistan have been demanding control of the provinces on their resources and the MQM has recently asked the coalition partners to initiate a debate on provincial autonomy in parliament.

A parliamentary committee headed by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had been set up in 2004, and later it was divided in two sub-committees, one headed by Senator Mushahid Hussain and the other by Senator Wasim Sajjad. While the Mushahid committee presented its report on issues of Balochistan which the government claims to have addressed, but the Wasim Sajjad committee hit snags when the opposition, particularly the nationalist parliamentarians from Balochistan, boycotted its proceedings.

Mr Saifullah Khan was assigned by the sub-committee on Balochistan to prepare an independent report on items which could be transferred to the provinces.