ISLAMABAD:
After months of wrangling between the ruling coalition led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) over the issue of chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), PTI’s Junaid Akbar was on Friday elected chairman of the parliamentary watchdog unopposed.
The position had been vacant since the government came to power following the February 2024 elections. The PAC is the apex parliamentary watchdog that oversees the audit of government revenue and expenditure and is considered the committee the most powerful and important parliamentarian.
Previously, the PAC only included members of the National Assembly, but in the recent past, members of the Senate are also part of it.
Although there is no restriction on the government in the rules allowing the presidency of the PAC to be entrusted to opposition parties, it is tradition and parliamentary practice for this function to be entrusted to a member of the opposition in order to ensure transparency in financial matters.
Akbar’s nomination was proposed by Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Leader of Opposition Omar Ayub Khan, Senator Shibli Faraz and other eminent personalities.
The committee members, including MP Riaz Fatyana, Malik Amir Dogar, Wajih Qamar, Sardar Mohammad Yusuf Zaman and others, expressed their full support for the candidature of Junaid Akbar Khan.
After his election, Junaid Akbar Khan thanked the committee members for their trust and pledged to run the PAC with the full cooperation of all members.
He expressed his commitment to ensuring the proper functioning of the committee and reiterated his determination to work in concert with all members, who assured him of their full support in his new functions.
Last month, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq had given the government and opposition a deadline to nominate candidates for the post of PAC chairman.
The speaker warned that if no consensus was reached, a PAC meeting would be called and the president would be elected on the spot.
President Sadiq reminded both parties that parliamentary tradition dictates that the presidency of the PAC is awarded to the opposition, although a final decision in this regard would require an agreement between the government and the opposition.
