ISLAMABAD March 25: The parliamentary committee on Balochistan, which met here on Friday to discuss the outcome of Thursday’s Shujaat-Bugti meeting, put off its deliberations for three days after its chairman Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain declined to divulge details of his talks with the Baloch leader. Chaudhry Shujaat and Mushahid Hussain are expected to pay another visit to Dera Bugti early next week after completing consultations with government leaders.

They have already met President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to apprise them of what had transpired in their meeting with Nawab Bugti and to discuss how far the government can go to meet the tribal chief’s demands.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain ruled out any possibility of a meeting between President Musharraf and Nawab Bugti.

According to official sources, the president expressed satisfaction on the working of the parliamentary committee and reiterated his support for efforts to resolve longstanding issues through political dialogue in the spirit of conciliation and cooperation.

Chaudhry Shujaat and Mushahid Hussain had gone to Dera Bugti on the invitation of Nawab Bugti and held talks with him for four hours on ways of ending the stalemate.

Chaudhry Shujaat told the parliamentary committee at the start of its proceedings that he had committed to Nawab Bugti that “we will not disclose details of our meeting till the matter is settled”.

He hoped he would be able to brief the committee three days later and hence its proceedings were postponed.

Mr Mushahid told newsmen that they had promised to finalize matters discussed with Nawab Bugti in three days and that “till then we will neither disclose the details in the committee nor make them public”.

Opposition lawmakers on the committee took strong exception to the way Chaudhry Shujaat walked out of the meeting when he was pressed to give details of the Dera Bugti meeting.

Talking to newsmen at the Parliament House, PPP Parliamentarians president Makhdoom Amin Fahim said: “Shujaat walked out of the meeting when we asked him to give us details of the meeting.”

Chief of Awami National Party Asfandyar Wali Khan said: “This is not the way … to convene the committee meeting and then refuse to discuss the issue.”

He added: “If they did not desire to speak out, they could have postponed the meeting for a few days.”

MMA’s Professor Khurshid Ahmed said he was surprised by the attitude that a politician of Chaudhry Shujaat’s stature had adopted in the meeting. He deplored the government’s inability to implement the Mushahid Committee report which had been completed on January 7.

PML-N’s Ishaq Dar, however, expressed the determination that opposition members on the committee would keep attending its meetings, whenever called, in order to help resolve a very sensitive issue.

Lawmakers belonging to the Baloch nationalist parties described the postponement of the committee meeting as an “attempt to strike a deal with an individual”, instead of talking to parties of Balochistan which commanded a majority.

Senator Raza Muhammad Raza Khan of the Pakhtoonkhwah Milli Awami Party (PMAP) said that his party would not accept any deal which the government might strike with an individual.

He said if the government was serious in resolving the Balochistan issue it should discuss all related matters in the parliamentary committee and let the committee propose a constitutional and political package for the province.

Talking to newsmen from Quetta, Senator Sanullah Baloch of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal) took a similar position, saying the Ponam was waging a struggle for the rights of entire Balochistan and it would not compromise (on those rights) or accept a deal the government might struck with an individual or a single party.