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Standing bodies’ heads polls uninfluenced by slanging match over PAC head

By Tariq Butt
February 15, 2019

ISLAMABAD: Commotion over Shahbaz Sharif’s continuation as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) apart, the process of electing chiefs of thirty-seven House bodies is as per the agreement reached between the government and opposition parties.

“We have no reservations over the ongoing election of chairmen of the standing committees,” senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Rana Sanaullah told The News when contacted to know the opposition’s side of the story on the process. “We are satisfied with the progress.”

He said that in accordance with the respective strengths of the two sides in the National Assembly, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ruling coalition will get its nominees elected as the chairmen of the twenty House bodies whereas the opposition will clinch eighteen such slots.

Rana Sanaullah said that the opposition parties apportioned their quota of the chairmanships among themselves while the governing alliance has done so among its partners. As per the arrangement, he said, the PML-N will get nine positions of the chairmen while the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will be given six berths. The remaining opposition parties including the Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) have been earmarked the rest of the slots.

The former Punjab law minister said that as per the democratic traditions, the parliamentary groups are accorded the chairmanships of the standing committees according to their respective numbers in the Parliament. The same has been applied to the Senate when its House bodies were constituted after the March 2018 election to half of the Upper House of Parliament.

In every committee of the National Assembly, he said, the ruling coalition is in majority being the governing side. If it wants to elect its nominees as the chairmen of all the House bodies, it can do so but this is not normally done, he said.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid wants to be inducted in the PAC to counter its chairman. However, there is not a single standing committee which has more than one minister. Finance Minister Asad Qaisar is the ex-officio member of the PAC. If Sheikh Rashid’s demand is accepted by Speaker Asad Qaisar, the PAC will be the only House body, which will have two ministers in its fold.

The rules allow inclusion of more than one minister in a committee. “There is no barrier in the rules to induct another minister in the PAC or any other standing committee,” retired additional secretary of the National Assembly Tahir Hanfi, who has been dealing with the House bodies for a long time, told The News.

However, he said since every minister has much work in his own portfolio to dispose of, the cabinet member can’t spare sufficient time to attend more than one committee. But he did not cite any example showing that any standing committee ever has more than one minister as its member.

Presently, three standing committees on narcotics control, statistics division and privatisation have no ministers as their ex-officio members. They are likely to have the ministers concerned among them when they will become functional. Under the rules, every standing body has the minister-in-charge as its ex-officio member, and he has the voting right if he is a member of the National Assembly.

According to Rule 200 of the Rules of Procedure & Conduct of Business in the National Assembly says the minister concerned will be an ex-officio member of the standing committee. However, he will not be entitled to vote as an ex-officio member unless he is a member of the National Assembly. In the case of a ministry which is in the charge of the Prime Minister [like for example cabinet and establishment divisions] or for which no minister has been appointed, the concerned minister of State, if any, will be its ex-officio member and, where there is no minister of State also, the minister or minister of State to whom the subject or matter referred to the committee is assigned will act as its ex-officio member. In the absence of such assignment the minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs will act as its ex-officio member.

Before the ongoing election of chairmen of the House bodies, Dr Shireen M Mazari was named as the chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of Chief Election Commissioner and Members of the Election Commission of Pakistan; Pervez Khattak nominated as the head of the Parliamentary Committee on the General Elections, 2018, and Asad Qaisar picked up as the chief of Committee of the Parliamentary Leaders in the National Assembly on Conduct as well as Business Advisory Committee.