Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan on Tuesday announced that his party has finalised Sher Afzal Marwat’s name for the slot of all-powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman, ending the infighting in the ranks of the former ruling party.

During his interaction with journalists in Rawalpindi, the PTI chairman said: “All disputes are over [now] as the party has picked the name of Marwat for the slot.” Last week, PTI Secretary General and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan said that Marwat should be the chairman of PAC as he was named by the party’s founder. Earlier names of Hamid Khan and Hamid Raza of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) made headlines in the media for the PAC top slot.

Earlier, in what was seen as a dramatic move, senior party leader Latif Khosa declared that PTI had decided to appoint senior leader Hamid Khan as the chairman of the PAC. Categorically rejecting the media reports claiming PTI formed a committee to hold talks with the military establishment, Gohar said: “Neither we have backdoor contacts nor in talks with anyone.”

According to media reports, the PTI formed a three-member committee comprising KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, Omar Ayub and Shibli Faraz to hold dialogue with the military establishment.

Speaking to a private TV, PTI senior leader Shehryar Afridi last week claimed that his party would hold “dialogues with the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and the Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (DG ISI) soon” instead of talking to “rejected people” who reached parliament via “Form 47”. Responding to another question, the PTI chairman said that they were in contact with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, once Imran’s political foe, in connection with the anti-government protests. Relations between the PTI and the JUI-F significantly improved after both parties found “ideological coordination” following the February 8 “rigged” general elections.

“We will talk to everyone except the MQM-P, PPP and PML-N.” It is pertinent to mention here that the PTI founder has said multiple times that they would not sit with thieves. Last week, the government and the opposition in the lower house of parliament struck a power-sharing deal under which the chairmanship of 26 committees would go to the treasury and 11 to the opposition benches, including the PAC top slot.