Provincial watchdogs: Sindh Assembly yet to form PAC, standing committees

Opposition members agree committees keep govt depts in check.

KARACHI:

Even after three months, the Sindh Assembly has yet to form a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and more than 30 standing committees, The Express Tribune has learnt.

According to the rules and procedure of the assembly, the speaker has to make these committees and announce a chairperson and members soon after the oath-taking ceremony of the first session. As provincial watchdogs, members of this committee can hold government officials responsible for anomalies in government accounts. In the outgoing government’s tenure, the committee had detected irregularities worth Rs9 billion in various government accounts.

“In every session, we raise this issue,” said Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MPA Khalid Ahmed. “But the government is not serious that this issue needs to be resolved quickly.”

According to Ahmed, the PAC is supposed to be working as a parliamentary watchdog taking up the audit reports and looking into the budget utilisation of various sectors. This committee can also refer problematic cases to the chief minister, the chief secretary and the governor so they can take action against corrupt and inept officials, he said.

Apart from the PAC, the provincial government also forms standing committees to initiate debates on the legislations before the bills are passed. The Sindh Assembly has yet to form committees on health, education, home affairs, finance, human rights, environments, irrigation, women rights, minorities, labour, revenue, law and parliamentary affairs.

“The committees are formed for participatory democracy and the assembly is the highest forum in the province,” said Pakistan Muslim League-Functional’s senior MPA Jam Madad Ali Khan, who used to be the chairperson of the former PAC. “I think the PPP-led government, which is a so-called democratic party, should adhere to this concept and form the committees without any delay,” he said, adding that it should nominate a few opposition members as chairpersons of the committees as well.

Whenever an issue pertaining to any department is raised during the session, the speaker has the power to refer the case to the relevant standing committee to look into the matter and report to the house, Khan explained. “The committee chairperson and its members - regardless of their presence on treasury or opposition benches - will convene meetings with stakeholders and submit its report to the house.”

Before the fiscal budget is presented, the role of the standing committees should be important in initiating sector-wise deliberation, he said, adding that every committee must submit the budgetary proposals of their department.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Shafi Jamote told The Express Tribune that the chairperson of the PAC should ideally be nominated from the opposition benches because members of treasury benches could easily side with the government. “I think the PPP is trying to settle down the matter with its former coalition partner that is why the process of the committees is delayed,” he claimed. “They are reportedly negotiating on the chairmanship of the committees.”

The law and parliamentary affairs minister, Dr Sikandar Mandhro, denied these speculations. There were some other important matters to be redressed that was why the process had been delayed, he said. “The credit goes to the PPP government, which formed almost all the standing committees of various departments in its outgoing government giving them mandate to start consultation on several bills,” he said. “We passed some of the bills on the recommendations of the standing committees.”

Sindh Assembly secretary GM Umar Farooq also said that speaker Agha Siraj Durrani will soon call a meeting of different parliamentary leaders in the Sindh Assembly on this issue. “Every parliamentary leader has to nominate a member and chairperson for the committees,” he said. “I hope this process will be completed within days.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2013.