Pakistan

Remarkable reinstatement: After explosive apology, Raziuddin gets his job back

PAC chairman was removed for threatening to blow up the assembly.

Shabbir Mir June 10, 2011

GILGIT:

An independent member of the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly and former chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Raziuddin has been reinstated to his coveted post. He was removed for threatening to blow up the legislative assembly, officials said on Thursday.

“Raziuddin has been reinstated as PAC chairman and a notification to this effect will be issued soon,” said an official in the GBLA.

Sources said that GBLA Speaker Wazir Baig, in a letter issued on Wednesday, revoked the earlier order.

Raziuddin, speaking on the floor of the house had threatened to blow up the house, accusing Chief Minister Mehdi Shah of cheating him on an important matter. Sources privy to him said that the legislator was enraged after the chief minister allegedly backtracked on a promise to make him a minister.

Speaker Wazir Baig removed him from his post, pacifying widespread criticism demanding an immediate suspension of the legislator from his post.

Raziuddin later publicly apologised for his unparliamentary stance and choice of words.

In the latest development, the officials said that PAC members including Mutabiat Shah, Bashir Ahmed and Yasmeen Nazar and Sheikh Nisar recommended his restoration as PAC chairman.

Meanwhile the sources said that a three-member PPP parliamentary committee, including comprising Finance Minister Mohammad Ali Akhtar, held negotiations with the chairman, convincing him not to create disorder in the assembly. The committee also convinced him to withdraw a petition that he had filed against the government for removing him from his post.

Meanwhile, senior PPP leader and G-B Council member Amjad Hussain opposed the decision of restoring Raziuddin. He said they will take the matter to the presidency as the chief minister takes decision unilaterally, bypassing the members. He said that he wasn’t invited to the meeting that had taken the decision.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2011.