AGP appointment: ‘Chaudhry Nisar may resign soon’

PML-N sources say the party has yet to finalise a decision on the matter.

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan may resign over the next couple of days from his position as chairman of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in protest against the appointment of a ‘controversial’ bureaucrat as the country’s auditor-general, sources said.

The leader of Chaudhry Nisar’s party, Nawaz Sharif, has reportedly given him the go-ahead in this regard. The decision, according to PML-N officials, was in line with the party’s new policy to pile up pressure on the government before launching a mass movement to seek snap parliamentary polls.

The government’s decision to appoint Akhtar Buland Rana to the post of the government’s chief financial watchdog last month drew sharp criticism from the main opposition party.

The bureaucrat once faced a departmental inquiry for harassing a female colleague but has since been exonerated. He has denied the charges.

Rana, who hails from Multan is reportedly a close personal friend of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

Even the Supreme Court was critical of the decision, with Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry writing a letter to President Asif Ali Zardari about the government’s decision to make the appointment. Nonetheless, the chief justice did administer the oath of office to the auditor general, a constitutional office bearer.

PML-N sources, however, said the party has not yet made a final decision on the matter and Sharif might announce it after further consultations. The party’s deputy secretary general, Ahsan Iqbal, said that no such decision had been taken so far.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th,  2011.