- File Photo

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly has been without a functioning Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for several months, hampering parliament’s role of scrutinising government expenditures. Yet, neither the ruling Pakistan People’s Party nor the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N appear concerned over the issue.Leader of Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan resigned as PAC chairman on Nov 27, 2011 and the post has been lying vacant since then. The assembly has met regularly over this period but no member has raised the issue.

Talking to this reporter, Yasmin Rehman of the PPP, one of the most active members of the PAC, said: “A requisition to convene a meeting of the committee has been submitted thrice to the speaker’s office, but to no avail. I don’t know why the assembly secretariat is reluctant to call its meeting.”

She said it was disappointing that the committee that had worked well over the past three years had stopped
working.

According to the National Assembly’s rules of business, the responsibility to fill the post equally lies on the speaker’s office and heads of the parties in the house.

The PAC is a bi-partisan forum having representation of all parties proportionate to their presence in the assembly.

Under the rules, the speaker can nominate a PAC member as its chairman until election for the position is held. Thus the committee could have continued to perform without break.

National Assembly’s Director General (Media) Anjum Mughal said political parties had to decide about the next chairman of the PAC.

The post of the chairman of the PAC had been given to the leader of opposition in the National Assembly under the Charter of Democracy signed by the late Benazir Bhutto and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif in May 2006.

Chaudhry Nisar held the post for more than three years and oversaw review of several audit reports of previous years. Annual audit reports for 2008-09 and 2009-10, which carry objections on the financial performance of the present government, have been presented in the house, but the PAC is yet to hold a meeting to discuss them.

The opposition leader, who resigned in protest against the appointment of Akhtar Buland Rana as the auditor general, has failed to point out during his recent speeches in the assembly that the PAC has been without a chairman.