ISLAMABAD: All ministries and divisions in Pakistan have been asked to start holding regular meetings of departmental accounts committees and complete their homework by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly.
The Public Accounts Committee has announced it will hold a meeting in the first week of December.
The PPP had, during its tenure, cleared the backlog and is not keen on the new committee probing “closed” accounts.
The PML-N, on the other hand, is not eager to give the chairmanship of the crucial committee to the opposition.
The previous PAC was headed by the then opposition leader in the National Assembly, Nisar Ali, who had helped the government recover close to Rs21bn.
Nisar, however, had quit the coveted office of the PAC chairman over differences with the government over the appointment of the auditor general of Pakistan.
Nisar alleged that the accountant general of Pakistan was handpicked by the PPP to conceal government accounts.
After much delay the government finally started the process for elections of the heads of standing committees.
There are 28 standing committees, six non-ministerial standing committees, six parliamentary committees, including ones on the appointment of the chief election commissioner and Election Commission of Pakistan members and the PAC chairperson.
After the elections of the committees on August 21, it was during the month of November when committee meetings of several standing committees were convened.
internews
