Committee chairpersons: NA session misses another deadline

Speaker justified the delay, saying budget session consumed more time.

ISLAMABAD:

Another deadline to make standing committees of the National Assembly operational has been missed and the onus, once again, is on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government.

The government had earlier missed the deadline due to election of the standing committees and 34 committees of the Lower House were devised on August 21 after more than six weeks of delay.

On the last count, when committees were elected, the government did try to justify delay through interpretation of rules of business but it did not work. As per rules of Business of the National Assembly (Rule 200) the government is bound to constitute standing committees within 30 days after the election of the prime minister. Once the committees are elected, it is mandatory to elect their chairpersons within a month.

“The chairpersons of the committee are to be elected within a month of election of the committees,” a senior National Assembly officer in legislation branch told The Express Tribune here on Saturday.

He said that it was not something which could be said as prerogative of the government to convene meetings whenever it wishes for the election of chairpersons.

“It is the responsibility of the government’s to convene the meetings of committees for election of the chairpersons, but till date, we did not receive any such request from the government,” the officer added.

Responding to a question, he said that the question of interpretation has already been settled and it was not accepted by the Lower House.

Earlier, Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid while referring to Rule 235 (Reports of the Committee) said that the 30-day time period for election of the committees is relevant when the House is in session.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2013.