Daily Times

A divisional bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday reserved a verdict on a petition against election of Shehbaz Sharif as chairman Public Accounts Committee (PAC), channels reported.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah said the verdict will be announced on Monday (Jan 21).

The petitioner Riaz Hanif Rahi Advocate, said in his plea that Sharif, who is also opposition leader in the National Assembly, was not eligible to serve as PAC chairman. He said issuance of his production orders [by NA speaker] was against the rules of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

“You’ve furnished all arguments and filed a reference as well against Mr. Shehbaz Sharif’s elevation as the PAC chief. The verdict will be announced on Monday” chief justice of the IHC remarked.

A new petition was filed in the IHC two days ago against election of opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif as chairman of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC),

In the previous hearing, the lawyer of the petitioner argued that appointing Shehbaz as chairman of PAC is like “ridiculing the constitution”, thus IHC should dismiss the Opposition Leader of the National Assembly from the top post of PAC.

He added: “Appointing corruption suspect Shehbaz as PAC chairman would influence the inquiry, the petitioner’s counsel asserted, while mentioning that issuing production order for the president of Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz to attend the National Assembly session, was also against the law of NAB.

The PML-N leader is currently under the custody of NAB in connection to corruption cases.

Shehbaz Sharif was elected chairman of the PAC in a meeting of the committee at Parliament House in Islamabad on December 21. The PAC in a move had unanimously elected Shehbaz as its chairman.

Published in Daily Times, January 18^th 2019.