Noor Alam elected PAC chairman unopposed

ISLAMABAD: Noor Alam Khan, a dissident member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was elected unopposed as the chairman Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday.

Following the change of government, the post of chairman PAC was lying vacant after the resignation of Rana Tanveer Hussain, who has taken oath as a federalminister. Defence Minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif proposed the name of Noor Alam Khan while Minister for States and Frontier Regions Senator Talha Mahmood seconded the name of Noor Alam Khan for chairman PAC slot.

Noor Alam thanked the parliamentarians after taking over the chairmanship of the committee and said it was necessary to hold the departmental accounts committees (DAC) of the ministries and division before the PAC.

He said those who should be held accountable would have to face accountability process, and the PAC would be run under the rule of law, and it would not consider the audit para of less than Rs50 million. Alam said the DAC would handle the audit para up to Rs50 million, while no party would be supported or opposed during this period. He said the objections regarding the audit of PAC would be dealt with expeditiously. He claimed that no institution was above audit while the politics of sit-ins would destroy the country.

He said registrars of the Supreme Court have also been coming to the PAC and the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) was also appearing before the PAC.

In a response to a question about former prime minister Imran Khan, he said only Allah knows the future of Imran Khan. “May Allah grant long life to Imran Khan,” he said. He also wished a long life to Nawaz Sharif, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the soldiers stationed at the borders to protect the country.

Though Noor Alam Khan was also in race for the slot of opposition leader in the National Assembly, he reached an understanding with Raja Riaz, who took along with him a “Jirga” to convince him [Noor Alam] and seek his support.

As it was prerogative of the opposition leader in the National Assembly either to head the PAC or nominate anyone else to head the committee, Raja Riaz nominated Noor Alam for the post.

After the fiery speech in the National Assembly against his government last year, the PTI had withdrawn the name of Noor Alam Khan from the PAC, but now after the change of the government, he has been inducted again into the PAC.

The name of Raja Pervez Ashraf, after being elected as the speaker National Assembly, has been removed from the PAC, while Amir Dogar and Riaz Fatyana from the PTI were also no longer part of the committee and in their place two dissident members of the PTI Noor Alam Khan and Wajiha Qamar will also be made part of the PAC.