Kashmir Committee: three meetings, 21 statements cost exchequer Rs 175m

Author: By Siddique Sajid

ISLAMABAD: In the last three years, the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir used up Rs 175 million, while conducting only three meetings, 21 press statements and several foreign trips. Official documents, obtained by Daily Times, revealed the committee has badly failed to contribute a single line in the country’s Kashmir policy – the most important issue of the country’s foreign policy. Despite its dismal performance the committee has been headed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the JUI-F without any checks and balances. It gives impetus to the allegations that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif dished out the important office to his ally as a political bribe without realising it would undermine the collective efforts on Kashmir cause.

Since the only visible effort made by the committee in the last three years was three meetings, the critics were compelled to say that one meeting cost the national exchequer a staggering amount of Rs 60 million. And those three meetings were held at the occasion of Kashmir Solidarity Day, observed in Pakistan on 5 February. Official documents revealed the Kashmir committee would again get Rs 50.814 million in the current financial year. A chuck of that money would be spent on salaries of 38 politically appointed staff members of the committee.

Besides issuing 21 press statements in the last three years, the only other achievement of the committee’s chairman is to regularly submit a Kashmir-specific memorandum to United Nations’ country representative on Kashmir Day. Documents revealed that the chairman enjoys the status of the federal minister. His perks include a 1300CC car, 360 litre petrol per/month and a house in the elite ministers’ colony.

The budget of the Kashmir committee is far higher than other parliamentary committees since it enjoys a special status. The presence of people like Maulana Fazlur Rehman has converted the committee into a redundant forum, as the Maulana is known as a politician who never misses any opportunity. Senior Analyst Haroon Rashid said it was a joke that Maulana Fazlur Rehman was heading the Kashmir committee.