Shahnawaz Hussain to head India-Saudi Arabia Friendship group

New Delhi, Nov 4 (UNI) BJP MP Syed Shahnawaz Hussain has been appointed as the president of the 23-member India-Saudi Arabia Parliamentary Friendship Group constituted by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

Mr A H Khan Chowdhury (Congress) and Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Independent Member in Rajya Sabha are the Vice Presidents of the Group which has three vacancies, one each for Congress, CPI(M) and DMK.

Besides increasing ties between the two countries, the Group is to maintain political, economic, social and cultural contacts between the two countries.

It will work for creating favourable conditions for continuous development of inter-parliamentary contacts, especially in organising of talks, mutual exchanges and coopertion between the two Parliaments.

The Group will assist in exchange of information and experiences on issues related to Parliamentary activities and promote cooperation between the delegations of the two countries.

The Lok Sabha members of the group are Mr Furkan Ansari, Mr J M Aaron Raashid (both Congress), Mr Srichand Kripalani, Mr Subhash Deshmukh, Mr Rakesh Singh, Mr Parsuram Majhi (all from BJP), Mr Atiq Ahmed (SP), Mr Giridhari Yadav (RJD), Mukeem Mohammad (BSP), Mr E Ponnuswamy (PMK) and Mr Vanlalzawma(MNF).

Mr Raashid Alivi, Chowdhary Mohammad Aslam (Both Congress), Dr Najma Heptulla (BJP), Mr Amir Alam Khan (SP), Mr A Elavarasan (AIADMK) and Dr Bimal Jalan (nominated) are the members of the group from the Rajya Sabha.

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