LAHORE: The PML-N and the PPP have demanded nominating the chairman Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Punjab Assembly from the opposition as per tradition.

“The government is not giving the PAC chairmanship to the opposition. A parliamentary committee should immediately decide this matter,” PPP Punjab president Qamar Zaman Kaira said while speaking to reporters here on Wednesday.

PML-N Punjab spokesman MPA Malik Muhammad Ahmad said the working of the Punjab Assembly was being affected in the abscence of the PAC chairman. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan was running the Punjab government. He said a Punjab minister had assured the opposition that the PAC chairman would be from it (opposition) but after PM Khan’s opposition to it, the provincial government had backtracked.

He said the prime minister wanted to suppress the voice of the opposition. “This government is even worse than a martial law,” he added.

PPP MPA Hasan Murtaza said the people’s mandate in Punjab was being insulted as there were five chief ministers in the province who were running its affairs.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2019