ISLAMABAD, Jan 7: The Law Ministry on Friday put the government in an embarrassing situation as none of its officials, including the federal and state ministers, came to attend a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Parliamentary Affairs, forcing its chairman to cancel the proceedings, sources told Dawn.

The sources said not even a single official of the ministry turned up for the meeting despite the fact that prior notices had been issued to the federal law minister, federal law secretary and other officials in accordance with the rules and procedures.

The angry committee members, who kept on waiting for the law ministry officials for more than half-an-hour, had to cancel the meeting following a message from Law Minister Wasi Zafar that he would not be able to come as he was busy somewhere else, the sources said.

They said the committee chairman, Dr Khalid Ranjha, informed the members that he had just received a message from the law minister that Minister of State for Law and Justice Shahid Akram Bhinder would attend the meeting in his absence.

However, neither the minister of state nor any other official of the ministry turned up. The committee members of both treasury and opposition benches, the sources said, protested against this attitude of the ministers, the law secretary and other officials, and termed it "a flagrant disrespect to the parliament's sovereignty".

The committee, which comprises senior parliamentarians like leader of the house Wasim Sajjad, S.M. Zafar, Chaudhry Anwer Bhinder, Mian Raza Rabbani, Justice (retired) Abdul Razzaq Thaheem and Farooq Naek, asked the chairman not to take the matter lightly.

Dr Ranjha, who is also a former law minister, announced that he would bring the matter to the knowledge of the Senate chairman and the prime minister, the sources said.

The meeting of the committee had been convened to review Contempt of Court Bill 2004 and Gwadar Port Authority (Amendment) Bill 2004. Interestingly, both the bills had been initiated by the government.

An opposition senator told Dawn that the bills could lapse as according to Article 70(2) of the Constitution, the Senate was required to pass the bills within 90 days after transmission from the National Assembly.

Meanwhile, an official statement issued by the Senate Secretariat stated that "there was a general consensus that deliberations of the meeting, in the absence of the ministers for law and justice and other functionaries of the law ministry, would be an exercise in futility as both the bills were initiated before the committee by the government".

It says the members were of the view that organizing meetings of the committee costs the national exchequer a lot of money, and absence of the minister, minister of state and even the senior functionaries of the ministry was "reflective of the fact that the ministers gave little importance to the parliamentary committees".

When contacted, Law Minister Wasi Zafar said he had assigned the task to attend the standing committee meeting to state minister Shahid Akram Bhinder and, according to his information, Mr Bhinder was present in the meeting.

When asked as to why the Senate Secretariat had issued a strong-worded handout if the state minister was present in the meeting, he said this question should be asked from the state minister.

Mr Zafar further said he would also not attend the committee's meeting in future as he had already given the responsibility to his state minister. Despite repeated attempts, the state minister could not be contacted for his comments till filing of this report.