ISLAMABAD: Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly (NA) Mehmood Khan Achakzai has raised objection on the proposed composition of the special parliamentary committee to probe the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) tragedy, demanding equal representation from both sides in it.
The NA’s move to constitute a parliamentary committee follows unanimous resolutions and motions recently adopted in both houses of the parliament on the gory fire incident in the federal capital’s main government hospital, which claimed lives of 14 new-born babies.
Parliamentary sources told The News that the NA speaker had decided to constitute a joint committee of 30 members with 10 members from the opposition and the rest from the treasury side from the two houses.
The Senate and the NA had recently adopted resolutions calling for a parliamentary investigation into the tragedy. The NA speaker was “mandated” to constitute a special parliamentary committee in consultation with the Senate chairman to investigate and inquire into the fire tragedy.
“Yes, we received a letter from the NA speaker’s office about the proposed parliamentary committee and as per its composition, the opposition is to get token representation of around five members,” said a source close to Achakzai while talking to The News.
According to him, the NA opposition leader, who is flying back to Islamabad on Monday, has expressed concern over the parliamentary committee’s composition and has insisted that the government should desist from “doing politics” on this national tragedy.
The source explained that the NA opposition leader was expected to respond to this letter and insist on equal representation of the government and opposition members to probe the tragedy and reach to a conclusion with necessary recommendations to avoid such heart-wrenching shocks in future.
An aide of the Leader of Opposition in the Senate Allama Raja Nasir Abbas also confirmed that the opposition leader in the upper house had similar concern and demand with regards to the composition of the proposed committee.
It was learnt that Ächakzai and Allama Nasir had consultation over telephone and shared similar views.
