Centre, opposition stick to their guns on PAC chief issue
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ISLAMABAD: The opposition has threatened to quit all the standing committees of the National Assembly (NA) if Shahbaz Sharif was not made chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) while the Pakistan Tehrik-e-insaf (PTI) said it has finally and conclusively decided to have its own chief.
“We are considering leaving all the Lower House of Parliament bodies if the government did not let Shahbaz become the PAC chairman,” prominent Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N) leader Ahsan Iqbal said. “The opposition parties share the stand.”
He said Speaker Asad Qaisar has been conveyed the opposition’s opinion and sentiments and told that the government should not deviate from the established parliamentary norm.
However, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Media Iftikhar Durrani SAID that It was THE irm AND DEINITE DECISION of THE Government that the PAC chairman will be from the PTI. “However, the name of a party leader is yet to be decided for the slot,” he said.
The logic behind this decision, he said, is that the accountability of the last government of the PML-N through the PAC will be farcical if the chairman of this forum is also from the same party.
Durrani said that the PTI government will have no objection to appoint Shahbaz or any other opposition nominee as the PAC chairman when the accounts of the present administration will be scrutinised by the PAC.
“However, the matters of the previous government will have to be audited by the new ruling party, the PTI.”
About the opposition’s threat to step down from all the House committees, the special assistant said this course is yet to materialise. “When it will happen, the government will devise its strategy to cope with it.”
Iqbal believed that the government was scared of its accountability and its slogan of good governance was hollow. “We had a tried and test accountability system enforced through the PAC during the last two governments.”
The PML-N administration, he said, had the representative of the opposition Pakistan peoples party( ppp),syedkhu rs hid Shah, as the PAC chairman while the PPP government had the nominee of the then opposition, the PML-N, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, as its chief. “We will not allow the PTI to reverse this tradition.