ISLAMABAD, Nov 18: The first formal meeting of the parliamentary committee for appointment of chairperson and members of the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) will be held here today to review the proposals submitted by common people for the selection of members of the newly-formed commission.

The chairman of the four-member committee, Naseer Bhutta, told Dawn that besides reviewing the suggestions, the committee would ask the ministry of human rights to request Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to jointly suggest names for the commission’s post of chairperson.

Mr Bhutta of the PML-N was elected the chairman of the committee comprising two members each from the PPP and the PML-N from both houses of parliament in September when the ruling party decided to support him as a goodwill gesture at a time when the relationship between the two parties were tense due to the PML-N decision to boycott the parliamentary commission on new provinces.

Senator Nuzhat Sadiq of the PML-N and Senator Rubina Khalid and MNA Mehreen Anwar Raja of the PPP are the other members.

The committee was formed in May in line with the landmark government bill to create a state-funded but independent national human rights commission.

The law empowers the federal government to constitute the nine-member commission under a procedure involving a public notice to invite suggestions for selection of members, consultations between the prime minister and the leader of opposition in the National Assembly and approval by the bipartisan parliamentary committee before a presidential confirmation.

Mr Bhutta said the ministry through an advertisement in the media had invited common people to suggest the names or the criteria for appointment of suitable persons as NCHR members.