National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar Thursday turned down Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif’s recommendation to nominate Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Saad Rafique as a member of the Public Accounts Committee, a private TV channel reported.
The speaker has taken the view that the nomination of the PML-N leader in the PAC merely to give him relief from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cases is unjustified and won’t give a good message.
Rafique and his brother Salman Rafique are currently in NAB custody in the Paragon Housing scandal.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan has accepted Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid’s request to nominate him as a member of the PAC.
At a press conference on Thursday, Sheikh Rashid said he has been nominated as member of the PAC by the party leadership in place of Riaz Fatyana. He said being the senior-most parliamentarian, he will play this due role actively.
The minister advised Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif to stay calm as he does not intend to ‘misbehave’ or ‘fight’ with anyone after his inclusion in the PAC. “There will be two Public Accounts Committees – one of Shehbaz and other of Sheikh Rashid,” he remarked, assuring the opposition leader that he was not coming to the PAC with any ‘malicious intent’. “I will play my constitutional role in the PAC,” he asserted. Criticizing the issue of production order for the detained PAC chairman every now and then, Sheikh Rashid recounted, “My production order was not issued even when my mother passed away.”
Published in Daily Times, February 1st 2019.
