ISLAMABAD: No National Assembly standing committee has any legislative business-- government or private--to dispose in the near future. No House committee has been convened to meet in the entire month of March or even after that to take up any bills moved by the government or private members as per the official website of the National Assembly Secretariat.
The standing committees on overseas Pakistani and human resource development, housing and works, government assurances and information technology and telecommunication and a sub-panel on the Cabinet Division are holding their meetings on 2nd, 3rd, 4th March but have no legislative business to transact. Rather, they will be seized with perfunctory matters. No meeting of the standing committee on law and justice is scheduled.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir, in an in-camera session on March 2, will receive the special envoy of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary General on Jammu and Kashmir, Ambassador Yousaf Aldobeay, who is the assistant secretary general on political affairs, and five members of his delegation. Chairman Syed Fakhar Imam will deliver the welcome remarks in the honour of the visiting dignitaries.
The OIC has often been scoffed at by Pakistani politicians and public circles for its ineffectiveness on the Kashmir issue. It was specially criticized when India had annexed the Kashmir last year. In the meantime, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), assembling on 3rd and 4th March, will get a briefing on the monetary policy of the State Bank of Pakistan, the status of revenue collection and Grand Hyatt Hotel. It will also seek confirmation of actionable points of its previous sessions held on 19th and 20th February.
Both the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and private builder, BNP, have filed review petitions against the Supreme Court judgement relating to the Grand Hyatt Hotel commonly known as constitutional one.
Last year, the apex court ordered the builder to pay Rs17.5 billion to the CDA in eight years. It had accepted the appeal of the BNP Group and 27 purchasers of apartments against the Islamabad High Court (IHC) order, which had upheld the lease cancellation by the CDA of a plot meant for the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
The CDA had rescinded the lease in 2016 over violation of agreement. The plot had been leased for building a hotel; instead the builder constructed and sold 240 apartments.
In its last hearing, the Supreme Court remarked that if the BNP was not willing to give guarantee of paying Rs17.5 billion to the CDA, the action of CDA of cancellation of lease was legitimate. The list of the 240 flat owners also includes some influential personalities.
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