NA standing committees’ formation in disarray after ECP order

ISLAMABAD: The formation of standing committees of the National Assembly has fallen into disarray after the Election Commission of Pakistan suspended the legislators on reserved seats on the basis of a supreme court order and the composition of the standing committees will now be reconsidered regarding the chairmanship and membership.

It was decided in a meeting chaired by Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq with the whips of all parliamentary parties of the National Assembly that the budget session of the National Assembly would commence on June 6.

Though the issue related to the formation of the standing committees and the Finance Committee came under discussion, no decision was taken due to the suspension of members of the National Assembly on reserved seats by the Election Commission of Pakistan in light of the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Proposals related to the formation of the standing committees and the Finance Committee, the allocation of time for the motion of thanks to the presidential address and proposals regarding the budget session for the Financial Year 2024-2025 were deliberated. It was unanimously decided that the current session of the National Assembly that started on May 13 would continue till May 17.

On the issue of the formation of the standing committees, sources said due to the suspension of members of the National Assembly on reserved seats, party positions changed and now the committees composition would be reconsidered regarding the chairmanships and members.

The sources said the National Assembly Secretariat had formulated a tentative schedule for the budget session starting from June 6 to 28 while the government intended to bring the budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 on June 7. The sittings of the National Assembly would also be held on Saturday.

In the tentative schedule for the budget session, it was proposed that there would be a six-day break for the Eidul Azha, there would be no question hour during the budget session, winding up of general discussion on budget would be on June 21 and discussion on the Charged Expenditure would be on June 22. Cut motions would be taken up from June 24 to 25. Consideration and passage of the Finance Bill would be on June 26 and Supplementary Grants would be taken up on June 27.

Deputy Speaker National Assembly Ghulam Mustafa Shah, Chief Whip PMLN Tariq Fazal, PPP’s Whip Ijaz Jakhrani, PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council’s Amir Dogar, Aminul Haq of MQM-Pakistan, Noor Alam of JUIF, Gul Asghar of IPP, Riaz Fatyana of PTI-backed SIC, BAP’s Khalid Magsi and Bilal Kayani of PMLN participated in the meeting.