ISLAMABAD, Oct 2: Four months have passed since the National Assembly came into existence, but its standing committees have not started functioning because the government is yet to finalise names of their chairpersons.

It is because of the absence of functional standing committees that the government has so far failed to get even a single law passed by the assembly and has also failed to initiate the parliamentary process of financial accountability through the Public Accounts Committee.

Sources told Dawn that officials of the National Assembly Secretariat had been awaiting a green signal from the speaker for over a month to convene meetings of the committees for the election of the chairpersons.

The newly-appointed adviser to the parliamentary groups of the PPP, Izhar Amrohvi, when contacted, said it appeared that the ruling party was unable to finalise the names of the chairpersons because of some internal rifts.

Mr Amrohvi, who has been associated with parliament for over four decades, said he had never witnessed such a long delay in the formation of the committees and the election of their chairpersons.

He said parliament could not perform its functions properly in the absence of standing committees because every piece of legislation and every issue raised on the floor of the house was referred to the committees for deliberations.

He said the government appeared to be in no hurry as it had no legislative agenda at all.

On the other hand, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed said names had been almost finalised and meetings would soon be convened for the election of chairpersons. He said the process of the formation of committees was delayed because members had given their choices for inclusion in the committees very late.

A source in the government said the list of the proposed chairpersons had been sent to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He said the government wanted to complete the election process during the last sitting of the assembly, but could not do so because the prime minister was out of the country for over a week.

The government has decided to give the chairpersonship of nine standing committees to the opposition and two to its coalition partners. Members from the PML-N will head 17 committees.

According to the minister of state, the PPP will get chairpersonship of four committees, the PTI three and the MQM two.

The JUI-F will be asked to nominate a member to head one committee and a member from Federally Administered Tribal Areas will also be made chairman of a committee.

Meanwhile, the government has decided to appoint 28 parliamentary secretaries to respond to questions raised in parliament in the absence of the ministers concerned.

The sources said that 11 members of each committee would be nominated from the government and its allies and six or seven from the PPP, PTI, MQM and other smaller parties.

Answering a question, the minister said he was yet to have a meeting with Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah to decide about the committees which would be headed by opposition members. The sources said the government was yet to decide who would head the all-important Public Accounts Committee.

The government missed the July 5 deadline for making the standing committees functional and managed to get approval for their composition from the assembly in August.

Under the assembly rules, the ministry of parliamentary affairs has to constitute standing committees within 30 days after the election of the prime minister.