Majority of the opposition parties Monday announced boycott of the Sindh Assembly proceedings after failing to get chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the provincial legislature. The PTI, MQM and GDA announced to hold their session outside the house as a token of protest against the single largest ruling Pakistan Peoples Party of the house who refused to give the PAC chairmanship to the opposition.
However, another grouping of four-member opposition, including MMA and TLP is expected to lend their support to the government party that seems to certainly retain the PAC chairmanship. Leader of the Opposition Firdous Shamim Naqvi of the PTI invited Speaker's attention towards the issue of PAC chairmanship, saying that after the refusal by Chief Minister, the PTI, MQM and GDA would boycott the proceedings of the house to register protest. Agha Siraj Durrani offered him if he wants, the issue of PAC chairman can be resolved through balloting. The speaker's ruling evoked reaction from the opposition MPAs who stood up from their seats and started raising shouts beating the desks. Firdous said it has been six month since Assembly came into being but the house standing committees are still not formed so far. He accused the ruling party of using delaying tactics and warned that they would now boycott the assembly.
In the meantime, members of the PTI and speaker also exchanged strong words. After a brief noisy protest, the three opposition parties walked out of the session.
Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani returned blame to the opposition parties for delay in formation of the committees, saying that they come up with different demands every next day. He cited that there is no provision in the Constitution that the Public Accounts Committee would be headed by the Opposition. He argued that the opposition first sought 14 other standing committees and had demanded that a majority of their members would be part of them which the ruling party accepted. Now, opposition wants to head the PAC, he said.
Ghani made clear that the government would not allot the PAC chairmanship to the opposition. "Whether the said Opposition parties attend proceedings or not, they have been given 14 committees to head," he said. MMA's Syed Abdul Rasheed said Firdous Shamim Naqvi never invited him to the opposition meetings and ignored him in all decision making process. He said he recognised PTI's Firdous Shamim as opposition leader but the latter never accommodated MMA in the rank of the opposition. The house was subsequently adjourned until 2 pm on Tuesday (today).
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