Impasse over plum post

The government and the opposition are embroiled in a controversy over who should fill the plum post of Public Accounts Committee chair. The PTI-led government appears in no mood to cede control of the powerful position to an opposition-nominated contender, especially so when the latter have chosen to name Prime Minister Imran Khan’s arch nemesis, Shehbaz Sharif, for the slot. The issue is the latest battleground in the long-running treasury-opposition conflict that shows no sign of abating. Traditionally the post has been held by an opposition figure.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan of the PML-N and Syed Khurshid Shah of the PPP, when both of them were opposition leaders in the National Assembly during the PPP and PML-N tenures, occupied the post. This is precisely the precedent the opposition refers to when making a case for itself to take the job. Both sides are unwilling to budge, with the treasury arguing it cannot hand over the post to the opposition to allow it to review projects initiated by its own government. Meetings between parliamentary leaders and the Speaker of the National Assembly to sort out the matter have so far failed to break the logjam. This rupture is beginning to affect important parliamentary business as well.

For instance, the Speaker is said to be hamstrung by the looming threat of boycott from the opposition and is not naming key parliamentary standing committees. These panels are so very important to debate thoroughly different proposed bills referred to them before approving or rejecting them. The Speaker is said to be in a quandary since neither side is willing to beat a retreat. He is bound to constitute the committees within a certain deadline, but he has not because the opposition had warned their members would withdraw from the panels if they were not offered the post of PAC. This clash is embodied by antipathy between the two political parties, neither of which is prepared to accommodate the other. If parliament is to function smoothly, this thorny issue will have to be settled soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2018.

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