PESHAWAR, Nov 6: Awami National Party (ANP) has termed the recently-established provincial ad hoc public accounts committee unlawful.

According to a press release issued by the ANP, the provincial government has constituted the ad hoc public accounts committee through an ordinance issued on Oct 22.

The party’s information secretary Haji Mohammed Adeel, who had earlier moved the Peshawar High Court when the provincial government constituted the same committee last time, has claimed that the ad hoc public accounts committee has, once again, been constituted without fulfilling the constitutional requirements.

He claimed that under the provincial ordinance the NWFP governor had wrongfully directed the secretariat of the provincial assembly to extend secretariat facilities to the ad hoc committee apart from supervising and monitoring the implementation of the instructions of the committee duly approved by the governor.

Haji Adeel said that under the constitution these powers could only be exercised by the speaker of the provincial assembly as instructions to the assembly secretariat were to be given by the speaker.

He said that under the Oct 12, 1999, proclamation of emergency order the governor(s) of a province had been conferred the powers of the provincial chief minister and not the powers of the speaker of the provincial assembly.