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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and opposition parties have locked horns over the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as both are interested in getting their candidate elected to the key post.

The PAC is the top parliamentary body to oversee the spending made by the former governments as the yearly report of the Auditor General for Pakistan (AGP) is presented before the committee which takes decisions over any irregularity committed in the statement of accounts.

Chief Whip PTI in National Assembly, Malik Muhammad Amir Dogar said while talking to Business Recorder that there is no legal or constitutional bar on the government that the chairmanship of the PAC goes to the opposition leader in the National Assembly. He said that there was understanding between the PPP and PML-N under Charter of Democracy (CoD) to elect opposition leader in the National Assembly as chairman of the PAC.

He said that the CoD is not a legal document and the PTI government is opposing the election of the Opposition Leader Mian Shehbaz Sharif as chairman of the PAC, terming it a ‘conflict of interest’ as the junior Sharif would get an opportunity to justify the ‘wrongdoings’ of his party which ruled the country for the past five years.

Dogar said that in the provincial assemblies, members from the government side have been elected as chairpersons of the Public Accounts Committees (PACs) and added that the speaker National Assembly is mulling over various proposals about the future PAC chairman as he has to take any decision in this regard in consultation with all political parties.

Answering a question, he said, “One should not forget that Syed Khursheed Shah had justified his own wrongdoing as PAC chairman for allegedly purchasing mobile phones worth Rs 90 million for pilgrims during Hajj in 2012 without inviting a tender.”

He claimed that Khursheed Shah had also helped his close friend, Syed Naveed Qamar justify the audit paras about his tenure as minister for petroleum.

He said the then Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) had boycotted the PAC proceedings when the audit paras of Naveed Qamar’s tenure as petroleum minister came for a debate and Shah left the meeting, asking Naveed Qamar to chair the session. The then AGP had refused to allow this cover-up and boycotted the meeting, he said.

When contacted, PPP Secretary General Farhatullah Babar said that it is the prerogative of Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif to become chairman of PAC in accordance with the CoD and past parliamentary traditions.

Answering a question, he said when Khursheed Shah was chairman of PAC, he did not chair the meeting when audit paras relating to him (Shah) or PPP government came up for discussion.

He said if Shehbaz Sharif is elected as PAC chairman then any other member of the committee could chair the meeting when audit paras related to previous PML-N government come under discussion.

Answering another question, he said that PTI government offered PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to head the PAC but he politely refused arguing that his party would not go against parliamentary practice which began during the PPP tenure.

He said that PTI government wants to divide the opposition by offering the chairmanship of the PAC to PPP.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan said while taking to this correspondent that PTI talks of democratic norms but it is denying the leader of the opposition the right to chair the PAC, which violates past precedent.

He said that PTI members would be in a majority in the PAC and they can object and take up any issue during the meeting if they disagree with the chairman. He said that another member can chair the meeting if audit paras of previous PML-N government come under discussion.

According to the sources, the ruling party is interested in bringing PAC chairman of its choice.

There is no criterion as determined in the rule book but it is the prerogative of the speaker to appoint any member of the house for the slot.