ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday reserved a verdict on a petition against the election of Shehbaz Sharif as the chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah said that the verdict will be announced on Monday (Jan 21).
The petitioner, Advocate Riaz Hanif Rahi, said in his plea that Sharif, who is also opposition leader in the National Assembly (NA), is not eligible to serve as the PAC chairman. He said that the issuance of his production orders was against the rules of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
“You have furnished all arguments and filed a reference as well against Shehbaz Sharif’s elevation as the PAC chief. The verdict will be announced on Monday,” the IHC chief justice remarked.
A new petition was filed in the IHC two days ago against the election of Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif as the chairman of PAC. In the previous hearing, the lawyer of the petitioner argued that appointing Shehbaz as the PAC chairman is like “ridiculing the constitution”, thus IHC should dismiss the opposition leader from the top post of PAC. “Appointing corruption-suspect Shehbaz as the PAC chairman would influence the inquiry,” the petitioner’s counsel asserted, while mentioning that issuing the production order for the president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to attend the NA session, was also against the law of NAB.
Shehbaz Sharif was elected as the chairman of the PAC in a meeting of the committee at Parliament House in Islamabad on December 21. The PAC, in a move, had unanimously elected Shehbaz as its chairman.
