ISLAMABAD: The stalemate between the government and opposition on the formation of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and standing committees of the National Assembly continued as both sides have refused to budge on the stated positions.
National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar held a meeting with the opposition and the government representatives on Wednesday to find a way out but the meeting failed to reach any consensus.
In the meeting that was presided by National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar and was attended by NA ex-speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Tanveer and Rana Sanaullah Khan from PML-N, Syed Naveed Qamar of the PPP while government was represented by Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak, Finance Minister Asad Umar and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan.
The government side in the meeting stuck to its stance that the opposition should have come up with any other name for the chairmanship of the PAC except Shahbaz Sharif but the opposition was of the view that past traditions of the National Assembly should be honoured.
During the meeting, the record of the PAC pending audit paras was also sought and according to data the audit paras of the year 2916-17 were pending before the PAC while the audit paras of financial year 2017-18 were yet not presented before the PAC.
The opposition in the meeting proposed that Opposition Leader Shahbaz Sharif will not preside over those PAC meetings in which the audit paras of the PML-N government of financial year 2016-17 and 2017-18 will come for examination as it was used to be done in the past.
However, the government representatives in the meeting did not agree with the opposition and insisted that the opposition should show flexibility on this issue to pave the way of the formation of the standing committees of the National Assembly and when the audit paras of the present government comes up in the PAC, the opposition should audit it.
But no headway was made as both the government and opposition stuck to their stances and were not ready to move any inch from their stated positions.
As the government and opposition stuck to their stances, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar proposed to both that they once again should talk to their leadership and come again to hold another session with suggestion to resolve this issue.
During the meeting, the PML-N and PPP have also raised the matter of issuance of the production order of PML-N senior leader Khawaja Saad Rafique with NA Speaker Asad Qaisar.
Sources said the Speaker told the PML-N that he was looking into matter legally and will take any decision after examining it.