Senate elects heads of 12 committees

Parties given equal representation in the committees- PPP and PML-N to get greatest share followed by MQM and JUI-F

ISLAMABAD:

Following the upper house polls, the process for election of Senate standing committees’ chairpersons has begun and chiefs of 12 out of 34 parliamentary committees have been elected.

The parliamentary parties are given proportionate representation in the committees and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will get the greatest share followed by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F). Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will also get chairmanship of two such committees.

Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo of National Party (NP) is elected as chairman of Devolution Process Committee, an important body mainly responsible to oversee the implementation of the 18th Constitutional amendment and devolution of powers to the provinces.

Bizenjo’s party shares power with Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and the PML-N in Balochistan province. The JUI-F’s Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri is elected as chairperson of Senate House Committee.

The MQM’s Col (Retd) Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi is head of the Privileges Committee. Senator Maulana Tanveer-ul-Haq Thanvi, also from the MQM, is heading Housing and Works Committee while the party’s Senator Nasreen Jalil is elected as chairperson of the Human Rights Committee.

Senate Library Committee is headed by the PML-N’s Nuzhat Sadiq while the Business Advisory Committee is headed by the PPP’s Raza Rabbani, who is also the Senate chairman.

The PPP Senator Saleem Mandviwala is elected as chairman of Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economics Affairs, Statistics and Privatisation, while Rabbani will also head Senate Finance Committee.  The PTI’s Senator Syed Shibli Faraz has got the chairmanship of the Commerce Committee.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2015.