The Senate on Friday constituted a special house committee to scrutinise appointments in various public sector organisations following allegations and subsequent walk-out by coalition partners over what they considered appointments of Pakistan People's Party workers in a number of public sector institutions, grossly violating merit criterion.
Senate Chairman Farooq Neak and Leader of the House, who initially showed some reluctance but caved in to the pressure of Awami National Party (ANP), Jamiat-i- Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) and Jamhori Watan Party (JWP) for constitution of House committee when they stormed out of the House and threatened to boycott the session if their demand was turned down by the Chair.
Sensing the seriousness, the Chair gave ruling that "Special House Committee will be constituted in consultation with the leader of the House to look into the grievances of the members regarding appointments in public organisations". The issue was raised by Ismail Buledi and Gulam Ali of JUI during question hour that a large number of PPP workers had been appointed in National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) in violation of merit criterion.
On the response of the Minister of State for Interior Tasneem Qureshi that required procedure and merit was observed while making appointments in Nadra led to an uproar in the House in support of the JUI senators by other coalition partners. Zahid Khan of ANP and Shahid Hassan Bugti of JWP stood up in support of the JUI stance whose Gulam Ali, while addressing the chair, said: "Don't force us to boycott the session by rejecting our legitimate demand of forming a probe committee to unveil the truth regarding appointments."
He said that some 15,000 people had been appointed by the government in Nadra, Wapda, and Pakistan Railways and the committee should scrutinise all appointments for informing the House whether or not merit and rules of procedure had been observed. He remarked that not a single person was appointed on merit and criticised Pakistan People's Party that prompted the Chair to order to switch off his mike.
Adeel said that appointment of thousands of people sans merit in public sector institutions was injustice to the nation "and all we want is a committee of the House to look into the whole affairs". He said that the government was not responding to his question regarding appointment. "We are not talking about our recommendations but want that all appointments should be made on merit" he added.
Talha Mehmood said that the government was making appointments in various public sector institutions purely on the basis pick and choose, ignoring merit. Shahid Bugti of JWP also supported JUI and ANP stance and so was the reaction of Haroon Akhtar of Pakistan Muslim League (Q), Khurshid Ahmed of Jamiat-e-Islami (JI) and Opposition leader Wasim Sajjad whose opinion was that an important issue of public interest was raised in the House, which needed to be looked into by the House Committee.