PTI will not give PAC chairmanship to opposition: minister

LAHORE: Provincial Minister for Information and Culture Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chauhan has said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government will not give the chairmanship of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to the opposition.

Speaking to media, he said permission can’t be granted to hide the corruption of five years through the platform of the PAC.

The minister said it is not possible that the new government evades an investigation into the corruption of the previous PML-N government.

Earlier, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry had also said that the opposition has no right to claim chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Parliament.

According to reports, the government has finalised the name of Syed Fakhr Imam, a seasoned politician and former speaker of the National Assembly, as head of the PAC. Syed Fakhar Imam had previously also served as federal minister and leader of the opposition.

The opposition made it clear yesterday that it won’t nominate members to the standing committees of National Assembly, if it was deprived of its right to head the Public Accounts Committee.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Khursheed Shah and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif during a meeting agreed on making no compromise on the issue.

It is pertinent to mention here that in previous political setups of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), a parliamentary tradition was set by allowing the opposition to hold the top position of the PAC.