Shehbaz Sharif elected Public Accounts Committee chairman

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif was elected unopposed as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly (NA) on Friday.

On Thursday, the lower House of the Parliament approved a motion for its formation along with the Standing Committee on Law.

After becoming the PAC chairman, Sharif will formally convene the first meeting of the committee next week. Under Rule 108 of 2007’s Rule of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the NA, he will issue his own production order and will chair the committee meeting.

According to the rule, the speaker or the head of a committee can issue production orders of a parliamentarian or member of the committee, who is under custody for a non-bailable offence, if his presence is considered necessary.

The issue of parliamentary committees’ formation was pending since the last three months after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came into power because the government was against the former Punjab chief minister’s appointment as the PAC chairman. However, last week, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Defence Minister Pervez Khattak convinced Prime Minister Imran Khan that under parliamentary traditions, the opposition leader is appointed as the PAC chairman.

Syed Fakhar Iman, Sardar Nasrullah Khan Dreshak, Akhtar Mengal, Riaz Fatyana, Malik Amir Dogar, Munaza Hassan, Noor Alam Khan, Khawaja Sheraz Mahmood, Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan, Ali Nawaz Shah, Hussain Ilahi, Ijaz Ahmed Shah, Raja Riaz, Mian Shehbaz Sharif, Khawaja Asif, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Tanvir Hussain, Sheikh Rohail Asghar, Shahid Akhter Ali, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Syed Naveed Qamar, Syed Hussain Tariq and Hina Rabbani Khar will be members of PAC.

Standing Committee on Law will include Advocate Attaullah, Lal Chand Malhi, Farooq Azam Malik, Kishwer Zehra, Maleeka Bukhari, Sanaullah Masti Khel, Ihsanullah Tiwana, Agha Hassan Baloch, Sheikh Ali Arbab, Shunila Ruth, Riaz Fatyana, Shehbaz Sharif, Rana Sanaullah, Mehmood Bashir Virk, Usman Ibrahim, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Syed Hussain Tariq, Nafisa Shah, Naveed Qamar and Aliya Kamran.

Members of the concerned committees will elect their respective chairmen and the speaker of the NA has the authority to make any changes to the committee members.