JPC on 2G to question former Finance Ministry official

Secretary, Planning Commission, Sindhushree Khullar in her capacity as the then Additional Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs in the Finance Ministry will appear before JPC.

JPC Chairman P C Chacko had postponed the October 3 meeting of the committee after Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar decided to talk to BJP members who had been walking out of proceedings over calling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram as witnesses.

But uncertainty persists over BJP members attending Thursday's meeting. "I will call each one of them and request them to attend the proceedings...Let us see," Chacko told PTI.

A BJP member said the party would strategise on the next move tomorrow. The party has six representatives in the panel.

Though it was earlier decided to call the Attorney General on October 11, he has expressed his inability to appear before JPC as he would be out of country on Thursday.

Some Congress members had opposed calling the country's top law officer maintaining that a lawyer cannot be questioned for the advice he has given to his client. But Chacko had overruled the objection.

"Since the AG is not available, we decided to call Khullar," Chacko said.

There had been demands to call Khullar as she, along with then Finance Secretary D Subbarao, had reportedly opposed DoT's proposal to allocate spectrum at 2001 prices.