NA meets today amid squabbling over house panels

PML-N’s boycott threat leaves NA dysfunctional in terms of doing legislation

ISLAMABAD: The sixth National Assembly session will commence from Monday (today) amid continuous squabbling between the treasury and the opposition benches over the formation of parliamentary committees.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has been demanding the chairmanship of the all-powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Because of the ongoing tussle over the issue of the PAC chairmanship, Speaker Asad Qaiser has been struggling to put the house in order.

He has to stop the process of formation of the committees due to the opposition’s threat to boycott all the committees if the ruling party does not offer the PAC chairmanship to Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif as per ‘parliamentary traditions’.

The PML-N’s boycott threat has left the National Assembly completely dysfunctional in terms of doing legislation.

The speaker, who is currently on an official visit to Iran, had met Prime Minister Imran Khan and discussed the issue of formation of the house committees and the strategy to break the deadlock over the PAC chairmanship.

An official handout issued by the NA Secretariat after the meeting quoted the speaker to have stated that he was hopeful that the committees would be constituted during the upcoming session of the assembly scheduled to start from Dec 10.

Meanwhile, the session is likely to discuss important national issues.

PML-N President and Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif was expected to attend the assembly session after the speaker issued production order for the detained opposition leader.

The speaker has directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the authorities concerned to bring Shehbaz to the house on a daily basis under the rules.

"Presence of Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif during the said session was necessary, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by rule 108 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of the business in the National Assembly 2007, the speaker has been pleased to summon Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif," Qaiser stated in a production order issued by the National Assembly Secretariat.

As per the orders of the day issued by the National Assembly Secretariat, the house will discuss questions, calling attention notice, introduction of bill and legislative business.

 

With input from APP.