ISLAMABAD, Aug 28: National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza constituted an all-party special parliamentary committee on Sunday to monitor the law and order situation in Karachi and Quetta in line with a motion adopted by the house on Aug 12 after a nine-day heated debate.

The committee’s notification was issued by the National Assembly Secretariat hours before Senior Sindh Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, who is the spouse of the speaker, criticised the Karachi policy of the government and held the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) responsible for violence in the city. On the other hand, a spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League-N said the party had decided to requisition another session of the house and a notice signed by 92 MNAs would be submitted on Monday.

The special committee will look into the law and order situation in Karachi and Balochistan and present its recommendations to the house within two months.

It comprises Religious Affairs Minister Syed Khurshid Shah, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Noor Alam Khan, Dr Ayatullah Durrani and Abdul Qadir Patel of the PPP; Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, Khwaja Mohammad Asif, Zahid Hamid and Rana Tanvir Hussain of the PML-N, Ghous Bux Khan Maher, Riaz Hussain Pirzada and Zubaida Jalal of the PML-Q, Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi and Khawaja Sohail Mansoor of the MQM, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour of the ANP, Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the JUI-F and Khuda Bux Rajar of the PML-F.

The assembly had reached a consensus to send an all-party special committee to Karachi and Balochistan to investigate the recent spate of violence there.

The speaker had been authorised to constitute the committee of senior members through a unanimously passed motion after Interior Minister Rehman Malik wound up the opposition-sought debate on the law and order situation in the country with particular reference to target killings in Karachi and sectarian attacks in Balochistan.

The suggestion to form the committee had come from both sides of the house during the debate and the interior minister also insisted on it.

Despite a general belief that committees had been used as convenient escape routes in crises and their reports rarely implemented, the minister, who has always been in the thick of the moves and consultations to restore peace in Karachi, had assured the house that the government would help the new committee and honour its findings.

He said his ministry would place all facts about target killers and drug and land mafia before the committee so that nobody could talk about victimisation of any party.

The terms of reference of the committee are yet to be formulated by the speaker, possibly after consultation with parties on both the treasury and opposition benches, but she had agreed with a suggestion of some leaders that the panel should first focus on Karachi and submit a report and later take up the situation in Balochistan.