ISLAMABAD     -   Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif turned out to be a most irregular member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) followed by Chaudhry Hussain Elahi of Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam.

According to the official attendance record of the PAC members, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif is the parliamentarian attended only a single PAC meeting during the last three years as its member. It is pertinent to mention here that a total of 99 meetings of PAC were held till February 2022 but the opposition leader was present in only 10 meetings out of which 9 meetings were those headed by Shehbaz Sharif himself as Chairman PAC in the very beginning.

Later, he stepped down as Chairman PAC and the committee elected MNA Rana Tanveer Hussain as its new chairman but Shehbaz did not surrender his PAC membership. Since then he could manage to attend only a single PAC meeting as an ordinary member. Similarly, Hussain Elahi, the first time elected MNA from district Gujrat, is the second most irregular member of the PAC as he appeared only in 6 sittings out of total 99 meetings held so far.

Parliament through PAC plays a pivotal role in ensuring parliamentary oversight on public exchequer by examining Auditor General’s Report relating to the accounts of federation laid before both Senate and National Assembly. However, the attendance role and overall observation shows that a very small number of parliamentarians show seriousness towards the PAC business as most of the members remain absent from the meetings.

At present, PAC consists of 29 members including 6 members from Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, 13 from Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf, 5 from Pakistan People’s Party, two from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, one each from MQM, PML-Q and an independent member. The seriousness of the members towards PAC can be gauged from the fact that 15 out of total members have attended less than fifty percent of the meetings including Hussain Elahi with 6 meetings, Amer Mahmood Kiani with 9 meetings, Shehbaz Sharif with 10 meetings, Ali Nawaz Shah with 12 meetings, Senator Dr. Shahzad Waseem with 13 meetings, Senator Shibli Faraz with 18 meetings, Senator Ahmed Khan with 22 meetings, Suna Ullah Khan Masti Khel with 22 meetings, Sardar Nasarullah Khan Darashk with 24 meetings, Senator Talha Mehmood with 26 meetings, Raja Pervez Asharf with 27 meetings, Iqbal M Khan with 37 meetings, Raja Riaz Ahmed with 39 meetings, Senator Sherry Rehman with 40 meetings and Malik Amir Dogar with 44 meetings.

On the other hand, there are 12 members, who have attended more than fifty percent of total meeting of PAC including Munaza Hassan at the top with 81 meetings followed by Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed with 69 meetings, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Shaikh Rohail Asghar with 65 meetings each, Syed Hussain Tariq with 63 meetings, Shahida Akhtar Ali with 61 meetings, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Riaz Fatyana and Syed Naveed Qamar with 56 meetings each, Muhammad Ibrahim Khan with 53 meetings, Hina Rabani Khar with 52 meetings and Khawaja Sheraz Mehmood with 51 meetings.

Meanwhile, Chairman PAC Rana Tanveer Hussain attended 98 out of 99 meetings of the PAC while Dr. Haider Ali Khan who had recently replaced MNA Noor Alam Khan did not attend any meeting till February, 2022.