NA standing committees: Chairmanship of 23 to go to govt, 19 to opposition

ISLAMABAD: Following the government’s decision to give chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, the government and opposition have also agreed on a formula for chairmanship of the National Assembly standing committees.

Under the formula, the chairmanship of 23 standing committees would go to the government and of 19 to the opposition out of a total of 42. The Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser has summoned a meeting of the government and opposition on Monday to take a final decision on the committees’ composition and their chairmanship.

According to parliamentary sources, though it was yet to be decided chairmanship of which standing committee would go to the government and opposition, it was principally agreed that the opposition, including the PML-N, PPP, MMA and ANP, would get chairmanship of 19 standing committees. The opposition has agreed to distribute chairmanship of the standing committees among themselves.

According to the agreed formula, the PML-N will get chairmanship of 10 standing committees, including the Public Accounts Committee, the PPP will get chairmanship of six, MMA of two and ANP of one.

The two legislators of Pashtoon Tahafuz Movement (PTM) are also supporting the opposition but they will not get chairmanship of any standing committee.

The parliamentary sources said the opposition leaders will also meet on Monday to examine the formula for the composition of their members and the committees’ chairmanship. Besides chairmanship, the PML-N will also have four members on the Public Accounts Committee, while the strength of senators will remain the same.

The PML-N will finalise its four names for the PAC and forward them to the National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Monday. According to a source in the PML-N, the PML-N senior members and heavyweights will be considered for chairmanship of the standing committee and as members of the PAC.