ISLAMABAD: The standing committees of the National Assembly are expected to start functioning by the end of this month as the government is set to announce the names of members of the committees during the coming session of the house starting from Monday.
According to Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed, the government is set to table a motion in the house in its next session, seeking approval of the committees.
Talking to Dawn, Mr Ahmed claimed that his ministry had finalised the composition of the committees. The government could not get approval from the National Assembly during its last sitting because Leader of Opposition Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah was not available, he added.
He said the PML-N government had decided to offer the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee to the PPP in line with the Charter of Democracy signed between the two parties in May 2006.
Sources said that 11 members of each committee would be nominated from the PML-N and its allied parties and six or seven from the PPP, PTI, MQM and other parties.
Under the assembly rules, the ministry of parliamentary affairs is required to constitute the standing committees within 30 days after the election of the prime minister.
A number of PML-N legislators admit that there has been an “unnecessary delay” in initiating the process.
Chapter 20 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007, deals with the constitution and functions of the committees of the National Assembly and Rule 200 says: “Except as otherwise provided in these rules, each committee shall consist of not more than seventeen (17) members to be elected by the Assembly within thirty (30) days after the ascertainment of the Leader of the House.”