Asad Umar elected chairman of NA finance panel

Umar was nominated after meetings with PM Imran Khan and FM Shah Mehmood Qureshi

Ousted finance minister Asad Umar was elected chairman of National Assembly's Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs on Monday.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader was nominated after Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi held separate meetings with the former finance minister to convince him to rejoin the federal cabinet.

While Umar refused their request to become a part of the cabinet, he expressed willingness to head the standing committee on finance.

When the NA committee met on Monday, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Syed Naveed Qamar proposed Umar's name while Sardar Nasrullah Khan Dreshak seconded the candidature. Special secretary of the NA Secretariat guided the members on the procedure to elect the chairman.

Umar was unanimously elected chairman of the committee. After the vote, he expressed gratitude to the members for extending support and assured them of running the committee with consensus.

The special secretary also assured the newly-elected chairman of full support of the NA Secretariat and the speaker. The members of the committee echoed the same.

The meeting was attended by MNAs Raza Nasrullah, Faiz Ullah, Makhdoom Syed Sami-ul-Hassan Gillani, Sardar Nasrullah Khan Dreshak, Faheem Khan, Aftab Hussain Siddique, Muhammad Israr Tareen,  Ali Pervaiz, Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Nafisa Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar and Hina Rabbani Khar, besides the senior officers of the National Assembly Secretariat.

Asad Umar to head NA finance committee

Asad Umar's exit as finance minister

Umar resigned from the federal cabinet in April after PM Imran removed him from the finance ministry and offered him the energy ministry.

However, the prime minister has been adamant that Umar would rejoin his team of ministers. “Asad Umar is intelligent and he is precious [asset]. He will return to the cabinet soon,” Khan told senior journalists recently at the Prime Minister’s Office.

Umar’s removal has been the subject of much controversy, particularly in the backdrop of Pakistan’s ongoing negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) senior leader Syed Khursheed Shah recently claimed that Umar was removed as finance minister on IMF’s insistence.

With additional input from APP.