ISLAMABAD, Dec 11: Leader of the Opposition Syed Khursheed Shah of the PPP was elected on Wednesday chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly.

Mr Shah was unanimously chosen as head of the PAC at its meeting held at the Parliament House. Bashir Ahmad Virk proposed and Javed Akhlas of the PML-N seconded his name.

After his election, Mr Shah announced that the committee would formally meet on Dec 31.

Besides taking up regular audit reports from 1998 onwards, the litmus test for Mr Shah-led PAC would be pending audit paras in the Rs2 billion NLC scam, lease of railways land to a social club in Lahore and summoning the Supreme Court registrar before the committee for scrutiny of SC expenditure.

When the previous PAC took up the NLC case and held three retired generals responsible for losses in the cell, former army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani announced that the GHQ would investigate the case. The investigation report is still awaited.

Since the audit para is still pending before the committee, it would surely be taken up by its new members.

The lease of railways land to Royal Palm Golf and Country Club in Lahore remained under discussion in the previous PAC. Federal auditors claimed that the lease of 141 acres of land resulted in over Rs10 billion loss to the national exchequer. Although the case is pending before the court, its audit para had to be settled by the PAC.

The previous PAC had repeatedly asked the SC registrar to appear before it for mandatory presentation of accounts, but a full court sitting stopped the registrar from doing so.

When asked if he will summon the SC registrar, Mr Shah said the PAC would follow the constitutional provision that a government organisation that received funds from the national kitty had to appear before the committee.

Audit reports from 2008 to 2011, when the PPP was in power, are ready to be taken up by the new PAC. Mr Shah said the PAC would work above party lines and that’s how it could carry out across-the-board accountability.

The PAC chairman said he would not meet principal accounting officers of government organisations to ensure transparency in the working of the committee.

Instead, the additional secretary of the committee will hold meetings.

Asked if he would use suo motu powers, Mr Shah replied in the negative.

Meanwhile, the government has also named parliamentary secretaries for various ministries.