PESHAWAR: Despite having the powers to intervene in the affairs of government departments and streamline them, 11 of the 36 standing committees of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly have failed to convene even a single meeting to discuss issues in the respective departments in the recently ended parliamentary year, according to sources.

They said that the performance of 11 standing committees was reported as nil because these committees showed no interest in their departments to fulfil the responsibility of oversight assigned to them. Like past, the performance of the oversight committees was not satisfactory in the second parliamentary year ending on May 28, 2015.

Sub-rule 2 of Rule 152 of the Rules of Procedure of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly states: “Each committee shall deal with the subjects assigned to the department concerned under the rules of business of the government or any other matter referred to it by the Assembly”.

The committees which failed to hold even a single meeting include the standing committees on house and library; excise and taxation; judicial affairs; industries, information, food, planning and development, revenue, science and technology, and housing.

11 of them failed to call even a single meeting in parliamentary year

They said that the number of standing committees having held no meeting had increased this year to 11 from nine in the previous parliamentary year.

Four of these bodies, including the standing committees on judicial affairs; house and library; information; and science and technology, had also not held any meeting last year ending on May 28, 2014.

Similarly, the sources said that 12 oversight committees had met only once.

These include the standing committees on auqaf, haj, religious and minority affairs; environment; irrigation; law; parliamentary affairs; local government; sports; inter-provincial coordination; transport; labour; relief; rehabilitation; and settlement.

Interestingly, the sources said, maximum number of meetings was held by the standing committee on privileges. In the privilege committee meetings, issues related to the breach of the privilege of lawmakers by the government officers were often discussed.

The standing committees on administration and the elementary and secondary education have held four meetings each, followed by the committees on agriculture; livestock and dairy development; higher education; and health with three meeting each.

Several of them have held two meetings, including the standing committees on home and tribal affairs; population welfare; zakat and usher; establishment; public health engineering; and mines and minerals.

The sources said that most of the oversight committees of the assembly didn’t take own initiative to intervene in the government departments about any existing issue rather they had been waiting for the business referred to the committees by the house for discussion.

When asked about the reasons for not convening the standing committees, the sources said that the chairmen of these committees either showed less interest in convening meetings or they were unaware of their powers to ask the respective departments about any wrongdoings.

Asked why he has not convened any meeting, chairman of the standing committee on revenue Mufti Fazl Ghafoor told Dawn that the assembly had not referred any business to his committee so far and that was why no meeting took place in the entire year.

“Actually, the government does not want to refer any question, calling attention notice or other issue to the committee despite insistence of the movers,” he said.

When reminded that he had the powers to intervene in the affairs of revenue department, Mr Ghafoor said that he had not seen any such issue in the department which needed his committee’s intervention.

“I had called a meeting on the strike of patwaris, but that issue was solved by the chief minister before the meeting,” he said.

Chairman of the standing committee on industries Babar Khan and chairman of the standing committee on food MPA Javed Nasim, who also failed to convene any meeting, were not available for comments despite repeated calls on their cell phones.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2015

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