ISLAMABAD:

After months of wrangling between the ruling coalition led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) over the issue of Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) chairmanship, PTI’s Junaid Akbar was on Friday elected to chairman of the parliamentary watchdog uninvited.

The post had been vacant since the government came to power after the February 2024 election. The PAC is the top parliamentary watchdog that oversees the government’s audit of revenue and expenditure, and is considered the most powerful and important committee of parliament.

Previously, the PAC included only members of the National Assembly, but in recent times, members of the Senate have also become part of it.

Although there is no restriction on the government in the rules to give the chairmanship of the PAC to opposition parties, it has been a parliamentary practice and tradition that the office is given to an opposition member to ensure transparency in financial affairs.

Akbar’s nomination was suggested by Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Leader of Opposition Omar Ayub Khan, Senator Shibli Faraz and other prominent persons.

The committee members including MNA Riaz Fatyana, Malik Amir Dogar, Wajih Qamar, Sardar Mohammad Yusuf Zaman and others expressed their full support for the candidature of Junaid Akbar Khan.

After his election, Junaid Akbar Khan thanked the committee members for their confidence and promised to lead the PAC with full cooperation of all members.

He expressed his commitment to ensure the smooth functioning of the committee and reiterated his willingness to work with all members who assured him of their full support in his new role.

Last month, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq had given the government and the opposition a deadline to nominate candidates to fill the PAC chairman post.

The speaker had warned that if no consensus was reached, a meeting of the PAC would be called and the chairman would be elected on the spot.

Chairman Sadiq reminded both sides that it was parliamentary tradition for the PAC chairmanship to go to the opposition, although a final decision in this regard would require an agreement between the government and the opposition.