ISLAMABAD: PML-Q likeminded group leader Kashmala Tariq’s bid to dislodge chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance Fauzia Wahab of the PPP is likely to end in a disappointment, as most of the committee members are unwilling to support Kashmala.
It has become a routine that whenever the committee meets, Kashmala is seen coming with an agenda to attack Fauzia. She has been successful in winning the support of PML-N members – Khwaja Asif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi – but others who support her during the meetings are not ready to vote out MNA Fauzia.
Insiders told Pakistan Today that Asif and Abbasi were supporting Kashmala against Fauzia for her public outburst against PML-N and its leadership and it was not necessary that they would support her if the chips were down. An aspirant for the position of the chairperson, Kashmala hindered committee’s routine proceedings in the first three days of its meeting that was to finalise recommendations on the reformed general sales tax.
On Friday, the situation again got out of hands when Fauzia expunged Kashmala’s remarks against Minister of State for Finance Hina Khar. Kashmala objected to Fauzia’s decision, asking the chairperson to explain the decision.
Fauzia warned that she would adjourn the meeting if Kashmala created rumpus, but Shahid Khaqan Abbasi stepped in to support Kashmala, telling the chairperson to “behave sensibly … if you cannot manage the committee’s proceedings, resign and leave the committee room”.
On this, MQM’s Abdul Rashid Godil also accused Fauzia of not running the committee seriously and stopping the members from asking questions. ANP’s Bushra Gohar said that it was not a classroom and parliamentarians had the right to ask questions.
As Fauzia, the minister of state and the FBR chairman left the room, Abbasi asked Godil to preside over the meeting, but realising that members could not ask anyone to conduct the proceedings, they decided to submit an application to the NA speaker to remove Fauzia as the committee chairperson.
