PHOTO: EXPRESS
ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Tuesday formed 36 standing committees of the lower house comprising MNAs from different parties and independent lawmakers.
According to a notification issued by the National Assembly Secretariat, no federal minister has been named in the standing committees. They would only participate as ex-officio members in the meetings of the committees related to their ministries and would be accountable for the performance of their departments.
The highlight of the National Assembly standing committees is the inclusion of central leaders of the opposition parties. Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari have become members of the committees.
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A 20-member Standing Committee on Defence has been constituted, which includes Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) Tahir Sadiq, Grand Democratic Alliance's (GDA) Ghous Bux Mahar and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) Muhammad Barjees Tahir.
Overall, eight members of the committee are from the PTI, five belong to PML-N, three are associated with PPP whereas one each represents the GDA, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Pakistan (MMAP).
In the 20-member Standing Committee on Interior, nine members are from the PTI, five are associated with PML-N and three belong to PPP. The members include PTI's Nafeesa Inayatullah Khan Khattak, Balochistan National Party's (BNP) Muhammad Akhtar Mengal, PML-N's Marriyum Aurangzeb and PPP's Abdul Qadir Patel.
Meanwhile, the 20-member Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs includes 10 members from the PTI, five from PML-N and two from the PPP.
Prominent names among the members include PTI's Syed Fakhar Imam, Makhdoom Zain Hussain Qureshi and Maleeka Ali Bokhari, PML-N's Zahra Wadood Fatemi and Maiza Hameed, PPP's Hina Rabbani Khar and independent lawmaker Mohsin Dawar.
Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, who heads the Public Accounts Committee, has also become a member of the Information and Broadcasting committee.
Bilawal has been named in the Standing Committee for Human Rights.
PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and party leaders Khursheed Shah and Raja Pervez Ashraf have not been named in any committee.
PPP has given representation mostly to Naveed Qamar, Shazia Marri, Hina Rabbani Khar and Nafisa Shah in the standing committees.
PML-N leader Khwaja Muhammad Asif has been named in the Standing Committee for Water Resources but former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is not in any list.
From PML-N, Saad Rafique, Marriyum Aurangzeb and Ahsan Iqbal have been named in the standing committees of their former ministries.
As opposed to the past, the treasury members have a majority only of a few seats against the opposition.
The chairpersons of each committee will be elected from amongst the members in their first meetings.
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