Members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have asked Federal Minister for Professional and Technical Training Mian Riaz Hussain Przada to rejoin the parliamentary watchdog and become its chairman so that a non-functional body could resume its job and take up audit reports pertaining to the incumbent government.
The members of PAC belonging to both treasury and opposition benches floated this proposal after they failed to reach a consensus on electing chairman from current composition of the parliamentary body.
The PAC is non-functional for the last three months since its former chairman Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan resigned in November 2011 after developing serious differences with the government over appointment of Akhtar Buland Rana as auditor-general of Pakistan.
Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada has served the PAC before his oath taking as federal minister in May last year as a result of the PPP-PML-Q power sharing deal.
He also served as the convener of one out of three special committees of the Public Accounts Committee.
A source in the PPP told Pakistan Today that the PAC members including Yasmeen Rehman from the PPP and Sardar Ayaz Sadiq from the PML-N had requested Riaz Hussain Pirzada to quit ministerial portfolio and take the office of PAC chairmanship so that the parliamentary body could resume its job. “The PML-N members of the PAC have told Pirzada that Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan also had no objection over his name for PAC chairmanship,” the source said.
The parliamentary committee, before becoming non-functional, smoothly disposed off backlog of audit reports of many years. Now, when the audit objections relating to the present government starting from its first year – 2008-2009 – are in office, the parliamentary watchdog has become non-functional as its members have failed to elect new chairman to fill the vacuum created by Nisar’s resignation.
After the resignation of Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan, the PPP considered appointing some senior PPP MNA like Qamar Zaman Kaira or Nadeem Afzal Gondal but later on the idea was dropped keeping in view the violation of the Charter of Democracy (CoD) signed by Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. The relevant CoD clause says the chairmen of the Public Accounts Committees in the national and provincial assemblies will be appointed by the leaders of opposition in respective assemblies.
The government further faced troubles when Nisar, at the time of resignation from PAC chairmanship, announced that no PML-N parliamentarian would take the PAC chair.
When contacted, Federal Minister for Professional and Technical Training, Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada confirmed that some members of the PAC were asking him to become committee’s chairman and quit minister-ship. “I told them that I am ready to render parliamentary service as I have no vested interests attached with the ministry,” he added.
