The government is offering PML-N MPAs places on parliamentary standing committees as incentives to ensure that they toe the party line in the local elections, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Almost seven months into its tenure, the provincial government has yet to set up a single standing committee. According to the Rules of Procedure for the Provincial Assembly, there are 46 committees of the house, including 38 standing committees for various departments. The other eight committees include two Public Accounts Committees, the House Committee, the Business Advisory Committee, the Library Committee, the Assurance Committee and the Privileges Committee.
The speaker of the house can set up the Library, House and Business Advisory Committees, while the members have the privilege of electing the rest of the committees. Alternatively, the leader of the opposition and the leader of the house can agree to a distribution of seats and chairmanships of the various committees, pending formal approval from the house.
Treasury sources told The Express Tribune that PML-N leaders were in discussion with various lawmakers from the party, offering to make them committee heads or committee members provided they back the candidate selected by the party for the local government elections in their area, including by withdrawing their own candidate, if that is the case. The government had also offered parliamentary secretary positions to MPAs who might create trouble for the ruling party in the local elections, they added.
The sources said that the Chief Minister’s Office had stopped Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal from setting up the three committees that he has the authority to set up.
Standing committee chairs are entitled to several perks, including an official vehicle, office and enhanced pay. Parliamentary secretaries get an extra Rs75,000 per month, as well as an official vehicle and office in the department concerned. Members of the PACs and other committees get extra allowances.
The sources said that almost every PML-N MPA, in many cases with the support of the local MNA, had proposed nominees for the local government seats in their areas. But the PML-N leadership wants to select the party’s candidates itself and fears that its vote base would be split should they come up against candidates backed by the local MP. The Chief Minister’s Office is offering these MPAs roles in standing committees or as parliamentary secretaries in exchange for withdrawing their nominees.
The PML-N leadership hopes to delay the formation of the committees till after the local elections, but several MPAs are demanding that they get their incentives before the elections, the sources added.
PML-N MPA Ayesha Javed said that the government should leave the affairs of the house to the elected members. She said that the Punjab Assembly was an institution and it would be good for democracy if the institution was strong.
She said that it was unfortunate that no committees had been set up yet, as in the absence of their role as monitors, the performance of various departments had deteriorated. She said that house committees should be set up at once.
Opposition moves
Several opposition members expressed differences over the chairmanship of various committees, including the PAC. They said that there were also differences in the PTI, the main opposition party, over the role of opposition leader, which was one of the reasons that the party was yet to open talks with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rana Sanaullah on the formation of standing committees.
Shaukat Basra of the PPP said that of the two PAC committees, the PPP had a right to chair one. He said that it was alarming that the government had not yet established standing committees, which were traditionally set up in the first three months of a new assembly’s formation.
Sibtain Khan of the PTI said that the party would take up the issue of standing committees in the next Punjab Assembly session, which is to commence on November 29. He said that the PTI believed that the provincial government could not function without the committees.
Abdul Qahar, the public relations officer for the assembly speaker, said that electing committees was a function of the house. He said that when the speaker gets the consent of the opposition and the government on the committees, he would present the nominees before the house.
Sanaullah told The Express Tribune that the government might set up some committees in the next session. He said that forming committees was a privilege of the house and no one from outside had a right to dictate how they were formed. He said no deals were being made in this regard.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 29th, 2013.