ISLAMABAD: A lawyer has filed a petition against the appointment of opposition leader in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Riaz Hanif Rahi is known as a habitual petitioner and has been fined by courts a number of times for filing frivolous petitions.

In the recent past, he filed a petition against the appointment of Justice Qazi Faez Isa in the superior judiciary which was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

He also filed a petition to retrieve an official bulletproof car from former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

The latest petition filed by Mr Rahi through his counsel G.M. Chaudhry cited the prime minister, speaker and secretary National Assembly, ministries of parliamentary affairs, law, finance, auditor general, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and others as the respondents.

A division bench of the IHC, comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, would hear the petition on Monday.

PAC remained dysfunctional since May this year after the previous National Assembly completed its five-year term.

It could not recommence since there was a deadlock between the government and the opposition PPP and the PML-N over the name of Mr Sharif as the PAC chairman.

After many deliberations, the government and the opposition parties resolved the issue and subsequently the PAC members unanimously elected Mr Sharif as its chairman last week.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2018