ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani on Thursday observed that the status of the Council of Common Interests was in no way below that of the federal cabinet and asked the government to consider establishment of a permanent independent secretariat of the CCI on the pattern of the Cabinet Division.

“The Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) and the CCI cannot coexist,” he noted as IPC Minister Riaz Hussain Pirzada concluded a discussion on the CCI annual report for 2015-16.

The minister informed the Senate that after consultations between his ministry and the Cabinet Division, a summary had been moved for the establishment of a CCI-IPC secretariat, which was awaiting the prime minister’s nod. The summary was likely to be approved at the next cabinet meeting, he said.

Mr Pirzada conceded that the CCI could not hold one meeting in each quarter of last year, as required under the Constitution, but shifted the responsibility to the provincial governments, saying they had not sent the agenda.

Report presented in Senate recommends dissolution of PIA board

Mr Rabbani pointed out that it was for the federal government to fix the agenda, and not the provinces. The 18th Amendment made it mandatory that the prime minister, and not a federal minister, would chair meetings of the CCI, he added.

The Senate chairman also referred to Article 154 (3) of the Constitution under which the council is to have a permanent secretariat and meet at least once in 30 days.

He said that under Article 154 (1) of the Constitution, the council was to formulate and regulate policies in relation to matters in part-II of the federal legislative list and exercise supervision and control over related institutions. He said the CCI had a huge agenda and regretted that its role was being restricted. He was of the view that it was not possible for a ministry to take care of its own affairs and those of the CCI.

About the IPC minister’s plea for giving representation to Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in the CCI, Mr Rabbani said it could not be done unless the Jammu and Kashmir dispute was resolved. “You will be undermining your international position on Kashmir by doing so,” he warned.

Earlier, taking part in the discussion on the report, Pakistan Peoples Party’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Taj Haider accused the government of sabotaging the CCI and regretted that the forum was not being used for the purposes envisaged by the constitution.

He claimed that the cabinet had taken all decisions in sheer violation of the Constitution, adding that the CCI, which was supposed to meet at least once in each quarter, met only twice last year.

He said it was often highlighted that the provinces could requisition CCI meetings, but regretted that the letters of the provinces seeking convening of the council’s meeting were not even responded to.

Mushahid Hussain Sayed of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid called for timelines for implementation of the decisions taken by the CCI. He criticised the government’s arbitrary control over proceedings of the CCI and stressed that this culture of secrecy should end now.

PIA board

The second interim report on the performance of Pakistan International Airlines presented in the Senate recommended immediate dissolution of its present board of directors on account of inefficiency.

A subcommittee of the special Senate panel on PIA’s performance has proposed appointment of a new BoD comprising civil aviation and legal experts, financial and revenue wizards, HR professionals and marketing and security specialists. It has also recommended that the previous practice of making the sitting vice chief of air staff an ex-officio member of the board be restored.

The report says the PIA board should only deal with conceptual aspects and broad policy matters, and the operational and management authority should be devolved to a permanent chief executive officer who should pick up his own team of experts. Salary structure and privileges should be rationalised and approved by the board.

It suggests that the CBA should restrict its activities to the welfare of grade 1 to 4 employees and associations which have illegally assumed the role of CBA.

The report reveals that three of the directors have been drawing more than Rs300,000 as salary without any work for over a year.

It says corruption is rampant in almost all departments of the airline and salary structure is on the higher side in some senior management cases as compared to their input.

The report, however, points out that the retired PIA employees are living a miserable life due to very nominal pension.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2017