ISLAMABAD: Following the en masse resignations of the PTI members from the National Assembly and the formation of the new cabinet by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, parliament has almost become dysfunctional due to incomplete committees, making it imperative for National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to settle the resignation issue as early as possible, particularly before the presentation of the federal budget in the first week of June.

An analysis of the composition of all the committees of the National Assembly and the Senate reveals that when all the committees of the National Assembly are now incomplete, more than 60 per cent of them are now without a head either because of the resignations of the PTI members or because of the inclusion of their chairmen in the federal cabinet. These include the most powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC), besides parliamentary committees on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Kashmir.

Moreover, the standing committees on finance and revenue of the two houses of parliament have also become headless at a time when the government is about to begin the process of making the budget for the financial year 2022-23.

The PAC was headed by Rana Tanvir of the PML-N, who has now taken oath as education minister, whereas the parliamentary committees on CPEC and Kashmir were headed by Sher Ali Arbab and Shehryar Afridi of the PTI, respectively.

Over 60pc of committees in both houses of parliament remain ‘headless’

The Senate Standing Committee on Finance was headed by Senator Talha Mehmood of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), who has now become the Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron), whereas the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance was headed by PTI’s Faizullah.

The NA Committee on Commerce is also now headless after assuming the charge of minister by Syed Naveed Qamar of the PPP.

The other two NA committees, which have made parliament non-functional, are the committees on law and justice and parliamentary affairs. The NA committee on Law and Justice was headed by PTI’s Riaz Fatiana, whereas Mujahid Ali, the PTI MNA from Mardan, was heading the parliamentary affairs committee.

There are reports that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who is chairman of the NA Committee on Human Rights, is expected to take oath as the country’s new foreign minister. If this happens, then another important committee of parliament will become headless.

The committees of the two houses are called the extension of parliament as all the legislation and important issues which land in parliament are referred to the committees concerned for a thorough debate involving the stakeholders. Under the rules, the committees are required to submit their reports to the house within 60 days. After presentation of the reports, the members of the two houses then vote on the bills.

The standing committees are constituted on the basis of party position in the house and since the PTI was the ruling party, it had the largest representation in all the committees. Data shows that there were eight to nine members of the PTI in all the NA committees with the total membership of 19 or 20. Under the rules, ministers cannot head the committees and they attend the meetings as ex-officio members.

The other NA committees which are without chairmen after the PTI members’ resignations are aviation, interior, climate change, defence, economic affairs, energy, foreign affairs, housing and works, information technology and telecommunication, planning and Safron.

The NA Committee on Information and Broadcasting also requires election of a new chairman after taking oath as the minister by PML-N’s Javed Latif. Similarly, after PPP’s Sherry Rehman becoming the minister for climate change, the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs also requires election of a new chairman.

Newly-elected Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has already decided to start the process of verification of the resignations of 123 members of the PTI by calling them individually or in small groups over the next few days. Some two dozen MNAs belonging to the formerly ruling party had already reportedly approached him seeking a meeting to clarify their stance.

Sources in the NA Secretariat confirmed that a majority of the resignations submitted by the PTI MNAs were not handwritten and had a similar text printed on the PTI’s letterhead. They said the secretariat staff also had doubts over the signatures of some members as these were not matching with those on the assembly’s roll.

The decision to resign en mass from the assembly had been taken at the PTI’s parliamentary party meeting, chaired by Imran Khan, and it was announced by PTI vice chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi on the floor of the assembly just minutes before PM’s election on April 11.

Former deputy speaker Qasim Suri, who was then functioning as the acting speaker, immediately accepted the resignations and directed the NA Secretariat to issue a notification. On April 14, the PTI had through social media released the NA Secretariat’s notification declaring that 123 party MNAs “resigned from their seats by writing under their hand” to the speaker. The notification, signed by NA Secretary Tahir Hussain, had declared that after submission of the resignations their seats had become vacant in terms of Article 64(1) of the Constitution, with effect from April 11.

The NA Secretariat officials had, however, remained tightlipped over the development.

A senior official of the NA Secretariat later said the notification that had been issued by the secretary was withheld as it was issued in a ‘controversial’ manner. Moreover, he said, the newly-elected speaker had already ordered de-sealing of the resignations and, therefore, the previous notification should be taken “as it has not been issued at all”.

The official made it clear that since the notification had not been forwarded to the ECP, it had no value and should be considered an internal matter of the secretariat.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2022