QUETTA: Parliamentary leaders of parties in the Balochistan ruling coalition proposed on Wednesday names of chairpersons of the standing committees which would be headed by MPAs belonging to the ruling parties.

Seventeen standing committees were set up at a meeting of the parliamentary leaders of the National Party (NP), PML-N, PML-Q and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) on Wednesday after a gap of two and a half years. Their chairpersons will be elected in the first meeting of the committees to be convened soon by the acting speaker of the assembly, Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo.

Wednesday’s meeting was presided over by Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch and attended by Mr Bizenjo, Senior Minister and PML-N parliamentary leader Nawab Sanaullah Zehri, Information Minister and PkMAP parliamentary leader Abdul Raheem Ziaratwal and Revenue Minister and PML-Q parliamentary leader Sheikh Jaffar Khan Mandokhel.

The meeting decided to give to opposition parties the chairmanship of the committees on local government, the Balochistan Development Authority, Gwadar Development Authority, Balochistan Coastal Development Authority, urban planning, public health engineering, Water and Sanitation Agency and Quetta water supply project.

Majid Khan Achakzai of the PkMAP was nominated as chairman of the public accounts committee. Other nominated lawmakers of the party include Manzoor Kakar (housing, roads and buildings committee), Syed Liaquat Ali Agha (home and tribal affairs and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority), Nasrullah Khan Zeeray (agriculture and cooperative societies, livestock and dairy development, fisheries and food) and William Barkat (services and general administration, inter-provincial coordination, law and prosecution and human rights).

From the PML-N, Kishwar Ahmed Jattak was nominated as chairperson of the committee on information, sports, culture, tourism, heritage, museums and libraries; Rahila Durrani as head of the committee on quality education, science and information technology; Mir Aamir Rind as chairman of the committee on finance, excise and taxation and transport and Sardar Dur Mohammad Nasir as head of the committee on industries, mines and minerals, labour and manpower. The PML-N was also given chairmanship of the committee on rules of procedures.

From the NP, Haji Mohammad Islam was nominated as chairman of the planning and development committee, Yasmin Lehri as chairperson of the committee on irrigation, energy, environment, forests and wildlife and Ghansham Das as head of the committee on social welfare, women development, Zakat and Ushr, Haj, Auqaf and minorities.

Dr Ruqayya Saeed Hashmi of PML-Q was nominated as chairperson of the health and family planning committee and Syed Agha Raza of Anjuman Wahdatul Muslimeen as chairman of the government assurance committee.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2015

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