PAC Chairman Quits on Imran’s Directive

ISLAMABAD: Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Junaid Akbar on Tuesday resigned from his post, confirming that the decision had been taken on the instructions of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and the party’s political committee.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Akbar — a PTI MNA — said he had forwarded his resignation to the party’s chief whip Malik Aamir Dogar.

Alongside his resignation, five other PTI lawmakers — Zar Muhammad Khan, Fazal Muhammad Khan, Ali Asghar Khan, Mohammad Iqbal Afridi and Maulana Naseem Ali Shah — also relinquished their memberships of National Assembly standing committees.

The development comes a day after Imran Khan, who is incarcerated in Adiala Jail, directed PTI leaders to boycott the upcoming by-elections and withdraw from all parliamentary committees.

Following her meeting with the former prime minister, Mr Khan’s sister Aleema Khan told the media that the PTI founder had advised against contesting the by-polls, arguing that participation would confer legitimacy on what he termed a “flawed electoral process”. She, however, added that differing views within the party would also be taken into account.

PTI to lose grip over 13 committees

Parliament currently has 84 committees in total — 43 in the National Assembly and 41 in the Senate.

With Mr Akbar’s resignation, PTI has lost one of the five committees it heads in the National Assembly. The remaining panels chaired by PTI MNAs include the Standing Committees on Economic Affairs Division (Muhammad Atif), Inter-Provincial Coordination (Sanaullah Khan Mastikhel), Religious Affairs (Malik Aamir Dogar), and Defence Production (Javed Iqbal Warraich).

In the Senate, PTI currently holds chairmanship of eight committees, including those on Devolution of Powers (Zarqa Suhrawardy Taimur), Economic Affairs (Saifullah Abro), Industries and Production (Aun Abbas), Information and Broadcasting (Ali Zafar), Interior and Narcotics Control (Faisal Saleem Rehman), Overseas Pakistanis and HRD (Zeeshan Khanzada), Energy (Mohsin Aziz), and Parliamentary Affairs (Humayun Mohmand).

If its senators also resign from these positions, PTI stands to lose chairmanship of all eight panels, leaving the party without control of 13 parliamentary committees in both houses.