Opposition parties boycott maiden session of PA business advisory committee

The three main opposition parties in the Sindh Assembly stayed away on Friday from the maiden meeting of the business advisory committee of the House chaired by the imprisoned speaker, Agha Siraj Khan Durrani.

The three parties, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), which did not attend the business advisory committee meeting, have been lately protesting inside and outside the House over the issue of chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and standing committees of the assembly.

The PTI, MQM-P and GDA have been demanding that the provincial PAC’s chairmanship be given to the opposition. However, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party has stated that it will accept the demand on condition that that the PTI sign the Charter of Democracy.

Speaker Durrani was especially brought from the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to chair the business advisory committee meeting at the PA building. Talking to media persons, the speaker bemoaned the absence of the PTI, MQM-P and GDA MPAs from the meeting. The representative legislators of the three parties should have attended the meeting as the committee’s constitution was a long-standing demand of the opposition, he said.

Durrani lamented that due to the absence of the main opposition parties, the committee could not take up any item on the agenda of its first meeting. It has been decided to give another chance to the opposition parties so that their representative legislators could attend the committee’s meeting, the speaker said, adding that the advisory committee would meet again on Monday for a proper session.

A letter written by the parliamentary leader of the PTI in the House, Haleem Adil Sheikh, was read out during the meeting, in which Sheikh informed the decision of his party to stay away from the meeting. One of the reasons for the PTI’s absence cited in the letter was that the maiden meeting of the committee had been convened in haste.

Standing committee polls

An acting speaker of the PA has announced the schedule for the elections for the standing committees and other committees of the provincial legislature as laid down in the PA’s rules of procedure.