KARACHI: Even more than a year after the general elections, 12 of the 34 standing committees of the Sindh Assembly have yet to hold even their first meeting and elect their chairmen.

The house has 40 committees, including the 34 standing committees, which were formed by the assembly after an 11-month delay on April 28 and duly notified.

The standing committees, which in addition to examining the bill or other matter referred to them by the assembly and submit its report to the assembly with recommendations and suggestions for legislation, enjoy the authority to examine the expenditures, administration, delegated legislation, public petitions and policies of the department concerned and its associated bodies and may forward reports of its findings to the department within two weeks.

Besides the 34 standing committees pertaining to different departments, there are six more specific committees. Most important of them is the Public Accounts Committee, which acts as the watchdog over the expenditures of the government, followed by the committee on rules of procedure and privileges, the committee on government assurances, the library committee, the house committee and the finance committee.

Three of the six committees have so far been activated by holding their first meeting to elect their respective chairman. The Public Accounts Committee, according to the Rule 189 of the Rules of Business of the Assembly, had to be constituted after the general elections. It consists of seven members elected by the assembly with the finance minister as its ex-officio member. The committee performs as the watchdog as it deals with the appropriation accounts of the government and the report of the auditor-general there and such other matters as the assembly or the speaker or the finance ministry may refer to it. The committee members have to satisfy themselves that the money shown in the accounts as having been disbursed was legally available for, and applicable to the service or purpose to which they have been applied or charged. The expenditure conforms to the authority which governs and every re-appropriation had been made in accordance with the rules prescribed by the government.

Its duty includes examining the statement of accounts showing income and expenditure of public, autonomous and semi-autonomous corporations.

The only committee, which met on April 30 and after election of Saleem Raza Jalbani of the PPP as chairman, met for three days in the last week of May to scrutinise the audit report of the public sector universities — University of Sindh for the financial year 2008-9, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro, for 2008-09, and Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, for 2008-09.

Besides, the 22 standing and two other specific committees, which after electing their chairmen, have failed to hold any meeting. The two specific committees are the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges and the Finance Committee.

The 12 standing committees which have yet to meet for the formality to elect their chairmen are: the standing committee on Agriculture, Excise, Taxation & Narcotics, Finance, Food, Livestock & Fisheries, Information & Archives, Irrigation, Population Welfare, Revenue, Land Utilisation and Relief and Rehabilitation, Ser­vi­c­es, General Administration & Coordination Department, Social Welfare and Special Education.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2014