Speaker Ghani made K-P PAC chairman

Fiscal oversight body has seven treasury and four opposition members

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday constituted an 11-member Public Accounts Committee.

According to a notification, K-P Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ghani would be the chairman of the PAC whereas seven members from treasury benches and four members from the opposition would be included in the fiscal oversight committee.

The members included Finance Minister Taimur Salim Jhagra, MMA's Inayatullah and ANP's Faisal Zaib and others.

The committee completed constitution of five sub committees including a committee under the chairmanship Deputy Speaker Mehmood Jan for implementation on the government's assurances.

Earlier, the opposition parties in the assembly demanded that the chairman of PAC should be from the opposition as per the parliamentary tradition.

The provincial government has rejected demands from the opposition parties of giving them control of the chief parliamentary fiscal oversight committee.

Instead, the provincial assembly speaker has been handed the key oversight slot.

During a meeting between Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, K-P Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ghani and parliamentary leaders of opposition parties — led by Leader of the Opposition in the K-P Assembly Akram Khan Durrani — the latter had demanded that they should be given control of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the provincial assembly as per parliamentary tradition.

The opposition parties pointed out that as per tradition, the chairman of the PAC in both the national and provincial assemblies is the leader of the opposition while the opposition parties are given representation in it based on their parliamentary strength to hold the government in check.

They further argued that since the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was in power during K-P’s last government and that the party now holds a stronger two-thirds majority, it cannot be expected to hold itself accountable.

However, the chief minister and assembly speaker pointed out that there was no such provision in the K-P assembly rules which stipulated that the leader of the opposition has to be handed the position.

Important forum

Legislature has four core functions, electoral representation, law making, authorization of budget and oversight. Oversight entails assessment, monitoring and rectification of implementation processes relating to laws and Government policies.

Through its oversight function the legislatures support to ventilate the abuses, misuse of power or irregularities, if any made by the Government functionaries. Legislative participation in the formation and the implementation of the Government budget is a most critical area of fiscal oversight; it helps to ensure both accountability and efficiency in the expenditure of funds. It takes the shape of scrutiny of the formulation and implementation of budget and also through ex-post facto examination of public accounts.

One of the tools that legislature can use to further enhance oversight of the financial operations of Government is a specialized Committee. In the Westminster model of democracy the committee is known as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

It is the Audit Committee of Parliament and as such is the core institution of public financial accountability established by Federal and Provincial Legislatures to examine the accounts of Governments and their agencies. (Additional input by APP)

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2018.