ISLAMABAD:
After months of wrangling between the ruling coalition led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) over the issue of the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) chairmanship, PTI’s Junaid Akbar was on Friday elected chairman of the parliamentary watchdog unopposed.
The post had been lying vacant since the government came into power following the February 2024 elections. The PAC is the apex parliamentary watchdog that oversees the audit of revenue and expenditure by the government and it is considered to be the most powerful and important committee of parliament.
Previously, the PAC comprised only National Assembly members, but in the recent past members of the Senate have also been made part of it.
Though there is no restriction on the government in the rules to give the chairmanship of the PAC to opposition parties, it has been a parliamentary practice and tradition that the office is given to an opposition member to ensure transparency in financial matters.
Akbar’s nomination was proposed by Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, opposition leader Omar Ayub Khan, Senator Shibli Faraz, and other prominent figures.
Committee members, including MNA Riaz Fatyana, Malik Amir Dogar, Wajih Qamar, Sardar Mohammad Yusuf Zaman, and others, expressed their full support for Junaid Akbar Khan’s candidacy.
Following his election, Junaid Akbar Khan thanked the committee members for their trust and pledged to lead the PAC with full cooperation from all members.
He expressed his commitment to ensuring the smooth functioning of the committee and reiterated his determination to work together with all members, who assured him of their complete support in his new role.
Last month, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq had given the government and the opposition a deadline to nominate candidates to fill the PAC chairman’s post.
The speaker had warned that if no consensus was reached, a meeting of the PAC would be convened, and the chairperson will be elected on the spot.
Speaker Sadiq reminded both sides that it was parliamentary tradition for the PAC chairmanship to go to the opposition, though a final decision in this regard would require an agreement between the government and opposition.
Source link
