Appointments in assembly panel irk govt MPs

Have approached party leadership on changing assignments

PESHAWAR:

Trouble seems to be brewing amongst assembly members from the treasury benches after a few lawmakers of the ruling party unhappy with the standing committees they have been asked to helm.

Some of these disgruntled lawmakers have approached the party’s leadership, including leaders in the assembly, to assign them different committees apart from resolving the long-pending matter of appointing parliamentary secretaries.

Sources in the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have told The Express Tribune that PTI lawmakers who have been appointed as chairpersons of standing committees include Fazal Shakoor for Relief and Rehabilitation, Azizullah Khan for mines and minerals, Asia Saleh Khattak as chairperson of public health engineering, Liaquat Ali Khan for Transport, Muhammad Idress for sports and tourism, Pukhtoon Yar Khan for primary and secondary education, Zubair Khan for establishment department, Sitra Afreen for social welfare, Khalid Khan for revenue, Wajidullah Khan for food, Malik Shaukat Ali for irrigation, Nazir Ahmed Butt for home affairs, Rabia Basri for health, Nawabzada Fariduddin for finance, Madeha Nisar for higher education, Ameer Farzand Khan for communications and works and Hajj, Arbab Wasim for agriculture, and Pir Fida Muhammad for judicial affairs.

Members of the government, however, have said that some of the chairpersons are not happy with the committees assigned and desire that they should be changed.

A party source told The Express Tribune that it had been decided that those party members who are not part of the provincial cabinet and those who do not make the cut for chairpersons of standing committees will be considered for the positions of parliamentary secretaries. Moreover, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had already updated and consulted PTI chairman and Prime Minister Imran Khan about this formula and names had been decided for each post.

However, with some party members unhappy with their committee seats, it had also delayed the process of appointing parliamentary secretaries as the entire formula and naming will have to be reviewed by the party.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2020.