ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, on Friday elected a member of former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) opposition party as the head of its accountability committee, amid prevailing political tensions in the South Asian country.
The Public Accounts Committee is among the most powerful parliamentary bodies in Pakistan and holds the authority to summon virtually any individual or record from government departments. Its main objective is to uphold transparency and accountability across all public and constitutional institutions, promoting financial integrity and good governance.
The development came a day after ex-PM Khan called off negotiations with the government over its failure to establish judicial commissions to investigate violence at anti-government protests organized by his party. The talks, which began last month after Khan threatened a civil-disobedience movement, aimed to ease political tensions, but have not yielded desired results after three rounds.
Khan’s ouster in a parliamentary no-trust vote in 2022 has plunged Pakistan into a political crisis, particularly since he was jailed in August 2023 on corruption and other charges. His PTI party has regularly held protests to demand his release, with many of the demonstrations turning violent. At the last meeting on Jan. 16, the PTI had given the government seven days to announce the truth commissions, a deadline that expired on Thursday.
But despite the government-opposition stalemate, Junaid Akbar Khan, a lawmaker from Khan’s PTI party, was elected on Friday unopposed as the head of the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), according to a statement issued by the National Assembly Secretariat. The post of the PAC chairman had been vacant since the general election in Feb. last year.
“I will move forward taking all the [committee] members with me,” Junaid was quoted as saying by the National Assembly Secretariat, as committee members assured him of their support.
The announcement of Junaid’s election as PAC chairman came hours after the PTI refused to attend the next round of talks with the government on Jan. 28
The PTI’s demands to the government revolve around the release of all political prisoners including Khan, and the formation of two judicial commissions to probe into violent protest rallies, including one on May 9, 2023, when PTI supporters rampaged through military offices and installations, and a second one on Nov. 26, 2024 to demand Khan’s release, in which the government says four troops were killed.
Speaking to reporters in Islamabad, Senator Irfan Siddiqui, a member of the government’s negotiations team, criticized the PTI for calling off the parleys.
“Come out of this confusion, and come sit with us on the 28th,” he said in televised comments, referring to Khan’s party. “Whether the commission will be formed or not, it will be decided there.”