Standing committees remain to be formed
The National Assembly (NA) has failed to constitute standing committees, three months since the general elections, since the appointment of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman has become bone of contention between the government and opposition.
The opposition has decided to stay away from taking part in the process as long as issue of PAC chairmanship is not sorted out.
The committee system is viewed as the backbone of the parliamentary form of government.
The leader of the opposition is traditionally appointed as the PAC chairman, but the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is opposed to the idea, as it does not want Shehbaz Sharif to lead the powerful committee.
The opposition has decided to concede in the interest of the system, and proposed Khawaja Mohamed Asif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as alternatives.
However, government’s stalwarts have rejected Khawaja Asif, and is silent about Bhutto Zardari.
According to parliamentary rules, there is no criteria for appointment to the PAC chairmanship.
Rather, it is the prerogative of the parliament speaker to appoint any member of the house to the post.
It is unlikely that any understanding could be made before the next sitting of the National Assembly regarding the appointment of PAC chairman, sources said.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly’s fourth session, which lasted 12 days, has concluded amid allegations and counter-allegations by the two sides of the aisle, and failed to adopt its full agenda on any of the days.
Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif, who is currently a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) detainee and was presented by the bureau for the proceedings, took part regularly but Prime Minister Imran Khan was not present on any of those days.
The proceedings were marred by verbal sparring by hawks from both the government and the opposition, leading to the lawmakers being unable to perform legislative work.
Parliamentary sources said that the opposition has planned to requisition another session of the National Assembly, and that the petition for the purpose would be submitted in a day or two after obtaining signatures of the members.
The opposition has withdrawn its request for requisitioning of the session that was submitted last month, but the government summoned the sitting on October 31, that concluded on Friday.