Bureaucratic hurdles: No one to check finances as Sindh govt yet to form PAC

Sources claim PPP and MQM have developed differences on appointment of chairperson.

KARACHI:

Sindh government departments have been running without anyone to keep an eye on their expenses for nearly six months as the ruling party has yet to form a public accounts committee (PAC).

The Express Tribune has learnt that the main reason behind the delay is the differences between the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) over the appointed of a chairperson for the provincial watchdog. The MQM insists on appoint the leader of opposition, Faisal Subzwari, as its chairperson while the PPP wants to bring its own loyalist for this slot. This has led to delays in forming a committee, which was supposed to be formed soon after the first session of the assembly, which took place on May 29 this year.



The PAC is a forum of elected lawmakers of the Sindh Assembly, which keeps an eye on the financial accounts of various departments of the government and holds the relevant officials accountable. The importance of the PAC can be judged from the irregularities detected in five years of the outgoing government where the committee recovered around Rs9 billion.

“The distribution of around 35 standing committees has been finalised as per the strength of different political parties but the government has yet to make a decision on the chairperson,” said an official, privy to the development.

Not only the MQM, but members of all opposition parties are demanding that the rein of the PAC should be given to opposition parties. “This has always been a practice even the National Assembly’s PAC nominated the leader of the opposition as its chairperson,” said MQM’s parliamentary leader Syed Sardar Ahmed. “We want to follow this in Sindh too.”

Ahmed felt that it will be impossible for a PAC chairperson, who belongs to the ruling party, to criticise its own government’s policies or recommend strict action against officials found involved in irregularities. “Therefore, we demand a handover of this slot to the opposition,” he said, adding that they have sent many reminders to the government but not a single committee has been made so far.



According to Pakistan Muslim League - Functional’s (PML-F) parliamentary leader Imtiaz Shaikh, the government had promised to notify the standing committees and the PAC nearly two months ago but it never happened. “There are no issues in the distribution of standing committees, which is almost finalised,” he explained, adding that the PAC is an issue the government has yet to make up its mind on.

“We will raise this issue again at the upcoming assembly session,” said Shaikh. “I think the government, morally and ethically, should give up the chairmanship of the committee and give a chance to the opposition parties to nominate a member.”

Nevertheless, the provincial government has formed a committee under the supervision of its parliamentary affairs minister, Dr Sikandar Mandhro, to resolve this issue. According to Dr Mandhro, they have finalised the distribution of the committees and would present the report in the upcoming session of the assembly.

Sharing details on the strength of political parties, he said that the PPP will retain the chairpersonship of 17 standing committees as it is the largest party in the House. However, 10 committees will be given to the MQM, three to the PML-F, two to Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz and one to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Dr Mandhro failed, however, to justify why they have yet to finalise the formation of the PAC, which is the most important committee.

“There are no rules or law that can force the government to make the leader of the opposition, the chairperson of the committee,” he said. “This needs to be done with an understanding between the treasury and the opposition and we are still in the process of consultation. He insisted the PAC will be formed soon and denied that the PPP and the MQM have developed differences on this issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2013.