Body to make proposals public

ISLAMABAD Keeping in view the serious concerns expressed by the various quarters, particularly the lawyers community, the Constitutional Reforms Committee of the Parliament decided to make public the recommendations of the Committee regarding the appointment of judges in the superior courts.
The sources privy to the deliberations of the Committee informed TheNation that the Committee under the chairmanship of Senator Raza Rabbani on Monday reviewed the expected reaction of the various bar associations as they could move the court to stop the working of the Constitutional Reforms Committee of the Parliament for being indulging in the activity of influencing the appointment of judges in the superior judiciary.
The sources further said that the Committee would issue details of the recommendations of judicial as well as parliamentary commissions proposed by the Committee to deal with the appointment of judges in the superior courts in next couple of days.
The sources further informed that it was the consensus view of the Committee members to make public the recommendations of the Committee regarding the appointment of judges in the superior courts so that the wrong impression about the Parliaments influence could be countered.
The sources further informed that in the meantime the Committee continued with its job of reviewing the most contentious and controversial portion of the provincial autonomy with members from smaller provinces demanding maximum autonomy with deletion of the Concurrent List and Federal Legislative (Part-1) List leaving just Defence, Foreign Affairs, Currency and Communication with the Federal Government while rest of the subjects should be given to provinces.
The sources further said that some of the Baloch nationalists said that Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had promised with the Baloch leaders that they would be given maximum autonomy and they just wanted implementation of Quaids words.
On the other hand the members from some of the mainstream parties were of the view that the provinces were lacking the infrastructure and technical acumen to handle things in case maximum provincial autonomy would be given to the provinces and suggested that the provinces should be given autonomy gradually so that they could manage the affairs effectively.
The Committee would continue its deliberations on the provincial autonomy on Tuesday (today).
Meanwhile in another development Chairman of the Constitutional Reforms Committee Senator Raza Rabbani held a meeting with senior lawyer and Pakistan Peoples Party leader Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan on Monday and exchanged views on the controversy on appointment mechanism of judges in the superior courts.
The sources said that Aitzaz Ahsan and Raza Rabbani discussed the legal and constitutional points in this regard.