One step closer: Khursheed Shah appointed on PAC

The opposition leader is all set to be elected chairman of the panel today.

ISLAMABAD:

Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly (NA) Syed Khursheed Shah became a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Sunday, one step closer to being elected as the chairman of the panel.

The NA Secretariat has issued a notification in this regard.

The committee is likely to meet today (Monday) to elect its new chairman, sources in the NA Secretariat told The Express Tribune. At this stage, however, the meeting would merely be a formality, they said.

“The government and the opposition have already agreed that Khursheed Shah will head the PAC,” a secretariat official said.

Pakistan Peoples Party had originally wanted Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, sister of former president Asif Ali Zardari, to head the PAC.

The government, however, insisted the post go to the opposition leader. After much reluctance, Khursheed Shah finally agreed to take the job less than two weeks ago.

PPP had earlier nominated Dr Azra, Syed Naveed Qamar and Ghulam Mustafa Shah for membership in the PAC. However, Mustafa was finally dropped from the list and replaced by Khursheed after the opposition leader expressed his willingness to serve as the committee’s chairman.

Under the previous government, the coveted PAC chairman’s slot was initially given to then leader of opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

During Nisar’s tenure, the committee managed to recover over Rs115 billion from different government departments. However, Nisar eventually stepped down from the post following his party’s concerns over the appointment of Akhtar Buland Rana as the auditor general of Pakistan.

The current government earlier missed several deadlines for the election of the standing committees of the lower house.

According to National Assembly rules, standing committees are supposed to be elected within a 30-day period following the election of the prime minister. The government, however, tried to interpret the period as 30 days when the house is in session. This interpretation was rejected by the opposition.

After being delayed for more than six weeks, 34 committees were finally created on August 21. As of now, there are still 15 standing committees which have yet to elect their chairpersons, while both the government and the opposition shift blame on each other.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2013.