CRCP discusses hiccups

ISLAMABAD - The Constitutional Reforms Committee of the Parliament (CRCP) on Wednesday constituted a consultative sub-committee to deal with the issue of provinces holdover indigenous resources and other contentious matters relating to provincial autonomy.
The sources privy to the deliberations of the Committees meeting, which met here under the chair of Senator Mian Raza Rabbani, informed TheNation that the Committee continued discussing the economic empowerment of the provinces and it was agreed upon in the meeting that the quantum of federal taxes should be reduced and the same should be doled out to the provinces.
The sources in the Committee further informed that it was also consensus view of the members of the Committee that the names of dictators - Gen Ziaul Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf - written in the Constitution in connection with 8th and 17th Amendments should be deleted.
One of the Committee members on condition of anonymity told that he was not hopeful about completion of the Committees work during the current month and, according to him, the Committee would take well over a months time to accomplish its task provided it would have smooth sailing in the days to come.
About the consultative sub-committee constituted to deal with the thorny issues relating to provincial autonomy including the control of provinces on its indigenous resources comprised Dr Farooq Sattar, Wasim Sajjad, Shahid Bughti, Dr Abdul Malik, Mir Israr Ullah Zahari, Ishaq Dar and Mian Raza Rabbani.
The Committee held its first session after the Committees meeting on Wednesday evening and discussed some of the issues relating to the provincial autonomy and the control of provinces on its indigenous resources. The sources further informed that it would take sometime to thrash out differences.
The sources further said that the consultative sub-committee would exclusively deal with the contentious matters relating to provincial autonomy only to expedite the Committees work.