Sindh govt refuses to give PAC chairmanship to opposition

A few standing committees will be handed over, concluded the meeting between opposition and PPP

KARACHI: The Sindh government has bluntly refused to give the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to the opposition but agreed to hand over a few standing committees. The meeting on Friday, between opposition lawmakers and Pakistan Peoples Party ministers, decided that the final list of committees will be announced soon.

"The joint opposition has demanded around 15 standing committees. They [PPP] have sought time and will give us a response soon," said Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) MPA Arif Mustafa Jatoi, while speaking to The Express Tribune.

There are around 34 standing committees in Sindh Assembly. The committees are supposed to review bills, provide feedback, and can inspect the performance of various departments. After getting due share from the government, the opposition parties will distribute the committees among them.



"It was decided that the opposition leader will head the public accounts committees," said Barrister Hasnain Mirza who is the parliamentary leader of GDA in the provincial assembly.  He was referring to the Charter of Democracy, signed between PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) in 2006. "This is being practiced in the National Assembly, but unfortunately, PPP has disregarded Benazir Bhutto's commitment by not giving PAC chairmanship to the opposition in Sindh," he said, adding that for the last ten years, PPP appointed its MPA as chairperson of the provincial watchdog in order to avoid the accountability process and hide corruption.

The performance of PAC in Sindh has been abysmal. In the first tenure, PPP MPA Sardar Jam Tamachi Unar served as its chairperson from 2008 to 2013. In the second tenure, Saleem Raza Jalani was made PAC chairperson from 2013 to 2018 and gave no significant output.

Also present at the meeting were Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Haleem Adil Sheikh, Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani, Nasir Hussain of PPP and Advisor to Chief Minister on Information, Law and Anticorruption, Barrister Murtaza Wahab.

Wahab said that much headway had already been made in the formation of standing committees of the Sindh Assembly. He said keeping in view the interests of the province, genuine demands of opposition would be accommodated.



He made this statement while talking to media at Arts Council of Pakistan on Friday.  He said that to make the parliament an effective forum, and for better legislation for the people, the government and opposition will have to sit together and allow a working relationship to evolve.

He informed that the PPP government has invited the opposition for this purpose, so as to make Sindh Assembly an effective forum to highlight the issues of people and come up with solutions. He said that the meeting with the opposition went well. He said that Sindh Assembly has its own traditions and added that all the decisions related to appointment of PAC chairmanship and the formation of standing committees will be taken while keeping in mind the rules, regulations and traditions of Sindh Assembly.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2019.