ISLAMABAD: Due to disagreement between the government and the opposition, the issue of forming standing committees in the Senate has reached a deadlock.
Opposition leader Shibli Faraz and the government allies have not been able to reach an agreement on the distribution of the Senate Standing Committees. According to the sources, the government coalition is trying to take all the important committees including foreign affairs, finance and interior. In this regard, the important meeting held between the Chairman of the Senate Yusuf Raza Gilani, the Leader of the House Ishaq Dar and the Leader of the Opposition Shibli Faraz ended without result.
Sources say that PPP has asked for Finance Committee and Law and Justice Committee. PPP is adamant on giving the chairmanship of Saleem Mandviwala to Farooq H Naik.
On the other hand, opposition leader Shibli Faraz has rejected the government’s formula on distribution of committees and suggested that committees should be distributed according to past tradition. He said that in the last 12 years, the committees remained with the opposition, they should be given to the opposition.
Shibli Faraz said that the standing committees monitor government policies and parliamentary accountability. Government allies now want to end the parliamentary accountability process. The unfair allocation of committees is a weak and undemocratic practice of the parliamentary system. He said that the PDM-2 government left no stone unturned in the destruction of the country’s institutions
