PAC chairmanship It’s ‘logically wrong’ decision: Fawad

ISLAMABAD: The Minister for Information, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, on Thursday said it was logically a wrong step to make Shahbaz Sharif, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to look into the projects undertaken by his elder brother and the deposed prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif during his tenure. He said the PM has been wrongly advised on this issue.

He contended that the National Assembly appeared like a board of governors, where each day the opposition only talked about the NAB, delivered speeches, made hue and cry over accountability and then left the House. Talking to the media representatives outside the Parliament House, Fawad said even after the decision to appoint Shahbaz as the PAC chairman, the opposition is threatening not to let the National Assembly function and impede constitution of the House standing committees. He insisted that in his personal opinion, NA Speaker Asad Qaiser should show courage to constitute the committees without the opposition and run the House, as the opposition would not let the House function. “That is why, they were asked to take a decision on their own regarding the PAC chairman. It was their illegal and immoral demand,” he said.

This way, he cautioned, the masses won’t trust the National Assembly, as it continued to ignore their issues and problems and the opposition only talked about accountability. “When a thief is arrested, he raises a hue and cry and sheds tears as though he was innocent. They should defend themselves in courts,” he said. The minister noted that his party legislators are giving the opposition members an opportunity to speak in the National Assembly, who talked one-sided and then staged walkouts from the House.