ISLAMABAD: In a major breakthrough, Prime Mini­ster Imran Khan on Thurs­day conceded the chairmanship of the all-powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif in order to end a nearly four-month impasse between the government and the opposition over the issue which had virtually rendered parliament dysfunctional.

The announcement made by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the National Assembly was immediately welcomed by the opposition which termed it “the first positive U-turn” of Prime Minister Imran Khan and extended its fullest cooperation to the government in legislative work after formation of the standing committees.

After praising the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) for showing flexibility and terming the government’s decision a step that would strengthen democracy, the opposition parties, however, walked out of the house later, announcing that they would continue their boycott of the proceedings till the issuance of a production order for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Khawaja Saad Rafique by Speaker Asad Qaiser.

Opposition terms it first ‘positive U-turn’ by Imran Khan, boycotts NA session till issuance of Saad Rafique’s production order

Mr Rafique was arrested by the National Accounta­bility Bureau (NAB) a few days ago as part of a probe into a housing scheme scam after his bail was cancelled by the Lahore High Court.

The stand-off between the government and the opposition over the issue of PAC chairmanship had forced the NA speaker to stop the process of formation of nearly three dozen committees due to the opposition’s threat to boycott all the committees if the ruling party did not offer the office to Mr Sharif as per “parliamentary traditions”.

Under the rules, the speaker was bound to constitute all standing and functional committees of the house “within 30 days after the election of the Leader of the House (prime minister)”. Since PTI chairman Imran Khan was elected prime minister on Aug 18, the speaker had time till Sept 17 for the formation of the committees.

Mr Qureshi informed the house that before coming there he and other members of the ruling party, including Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, had met the prime minister to discuss the issue of the PAC chairmanship and he had agreed “to review his stance in the interest of democracy and for making parliament functional”.

“We met Prime Minister Imran Khan this morning. The prime minister has said that the opposition can nominate anyone. But if the opposition is still adamant, then we are ready to concede,” he said.

Mr Qureshi, who is also vice chairman of the PTI, claimed that his party had already agreed in principle that the PAC chairmanship should be offered to the opposition and they had asked the opposition to nominate any person other than Shahbaz Sharif as he was facing corruption cases and being investigated by NAB, but it did not budge from its stated position.

“Imran Khan has rev­iew­ed his decision. We have decided to leave the matter to the opposition leader with the hope that he will find a way out. He can nominate anyone and we will concede and raise no objection,” Mr Qureshi said. And then while looking towards Mr Sharif, he said that “if you (Shahbaz Sha­rif) want to become PAC chairman, we will not obstruct”.

He said it was a shared responsibility of the government and the opposition to make parliament functional, adding that the government wanted to bring a number of legislations for the welfare of the people and would like to seek proposals from the opposition. He said the country had already suffered in the past due to “stubbornness” of the government and the opposition and if both sides remained adamant then democracy would be damaged.

“Formation of the standing committees is a must for democracy and parliament,” he added.

As soon as Mr Qureshi took his seat, Shahbaz Sharif credited the prime minister for “reviewing his stance”, saying it showed that the “the government wants to make this parliament functional”. He explained that he personally had no desire to head the PAC, but it had been a tradition for a decade that the office was given to the opposition leader. Moreover, he said other opposition parties had nominated him for the office for which he was grateful to them.

Mr Sharif, however, disagreed with the government’s reasoning for opposing his nomination on the ground that he was facing a NAB inquiry and said that if this logic was correct then the prime minister was also facing an inquiry in the helicopter case and Defence Minister Khattak was also being investigated in the Malam Jabba land case.

The opposition leader also rejected the government’s claim that it had nothing to do with the ongoing NAB actions, alleging that it had been proved that NAB and the PTI were “hands in gloves”. He once again challenged NAB to prove corruption of a single penny against him and he would quit politics for good. He said inquiry against him in the Ashiyana housing scam and that against Pervez Khattak in the Malam Jabba land scam had been launched simultaneously in January, but only he facing courts and jail.

Mr Khattak, on point of personal explanation, claimed that he had already responded to NAB queries in the case, asking the opposition to let NAB work on its own way.

PPP leader and former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf acknowledged Speaker Asad Qaiser’s efforts “for playing a positive role” in resolving the issue of PAC chairmanship. He also lauded the government for reviewing its decision, saying that “after four months, this house will become functional”.

PML-N leader and former speaker Ayaz Sadiq also felicitated the prime minister and termed the decision his “most positive U-turn”. “If he continues to take such U-turns, democracy will be strengthened.”

Mr Sadiq pointed out that the PAC chairman only had one vote in the committee in which government members would still be in majority. Furthermore, he said, when the audit paras of the PML-N government would come up before the committee, it would be headed by some other senior member.

Recalling how as the speaker he had issued production order of opposition member Jamshed Dasti despite resistance from the government of his own party, he asked Speaker Asad Qaiser to immediately issue production order for Saad Rafique. He asked the speaker to take the decision on his own without seeking instructions from the government or the law ministry.

The former speaker told his successor that his name “will be written in golden words in history if he issues the production order”.

Earlier, when Shahbaz Sharif had also requested Mr Qaiser to issue the production order for Mr Rafique, the speaker said he was seeking legal opinion of the law ministry on the issue, but assured the opposition leader that “I will not let this house down”.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2018