ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: The government has decided to give chairmanship of nine National Assembly standing committees to the opposition parties and two to its coalition partners.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will retain the chairmanship of 17 committees. This was disclosed by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed during an informal chat with reporters at the Parliament House here on Wednesday.

Providing details, he said the main opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) would be given the chairmanship of four committees whereas the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) would get the chairmanship of three and two committees, respectively.

The minister said the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) would be asked to nominate one of its members to head one committee whereas a member from Fata would be made chairman of one committee. He said the meeting of the committees for election of the chairmen would soon be convened after seeking consent of all the opposition parties.

When asked about the chairmanship of the all-important Public Accounts Committee (PAC), he said the decision would be made after the return of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from his US visit. He said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Opposition Leader Syed Khursheed Shah might discuss the matter in the next few days.

The minister said that 28 parliamentary secretaries would also be appointed soon to respond to the questions of members during parliamentary sessions in the absence of ministers.

Sources said 11 members of a committee would be nominated from the government and its allied parties whereas six to seven members would be nominated from the PPP, the PTI, the MQM and other smaller parties.

The standing committees, which were constituted during the previous National Assembly session in August have been non-functional even though the government has already completed its 100 days in office.

Earlier, the government had missed the July 5 deadline of constituting and making the stan-ding committees functional and managed to seek approval of the committees’ composition from the assembly in August.

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