National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq finally established 40 standing committees on Thursday, including the influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC), following a delay of over three months.
As per an official announcement from the National Assembly Secretariat, the speaker has finalized the committee members’ names in accordance with the motion adopted by the National Assembly on May 17.
A source within the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) involved in the process informed Dawn that, according to the agreed formula, the opposition Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) would chair 10 committees, including the PAC.
Additionally, the source stated that PML-N would chair 13 committees, while the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) would chair eight and two committees, respectively. The remaining committees’ chairmanships would be allocated among the ruling coalition parties.
The PML-N insider mentioned that PPP and MQM-P were demanding more committee chairmanships than their share, and negotiations were ongoing. The exact committees to be chaired by these parties had yet to be decided.
Regarding the PAC, the PML-N agreed to offer its chairmanship to the opposition SIC, following past tradition and the Charter of Democracy (CoD) signed between the PPP and PML-N in May 2006.
It is notable that the PTI-SIC initially nominated Sher Afzal Marwat for the PAC chairmanship but later chose Sheikh Waqas Akram. Interestingly, Marwat is not listed as a PAC member according to the NA Secretariat notification.
The notification lists PAC members as Sardar Yousuf Zaman, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, Shezra Mansab Kharal, Raza Hayat Harraj, and Rana Qasim Noon from PML-N; Murtaza Mehmood, Shazia Marri, Syed Hussain Tariq, Syed Naveed Qamar, and Hina Rabbani Khar from PPP; Opposition Leader Omar Ayub Khan as an independent; Sanaullah Mastikhail, Junaid Akbar, Riaz Khan, Waqas Akram, Aamir Dogar, and Khawaja Sheeraz Mehmood from SIC; Moin Aamer Pirzada from MQM-P; and Shahida Begum from Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F). Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb will be an ex-officio PAC member. Additionally, the Senate chairman will nominate eight senators to the committee.
The delay in forming the committees, exceeding three months since Shehbaz Sharif’s election as prime minister, was due to disagreements between the government and the opposition. Committees were supposed to be established within 30 days of the prime minister’s election on March 3. This delay not only violated assembly rules but also began to impact legislative business.
