47 parliamentary, standing committees to be presented for National Assembly's approval next week

The government and opposition have finally reached a consensus on the National Assembly parliamentary and standing committees. The 47 committees will be presented before the assembly for approval next week. After being approved, the election for the committees’ chairpersons will be held. The parliamentary committees will be headed by the government while the opposition members will head the standing committees. Parliamentary committees on human rights, women’s rights, appointment of election commission members, investigating rigging, CPEC and Kashmir have yet to be formed. Nineteen committees will be headed by the opposition while 21 will be headed by the government. The remaining seven have yet to be formed so it has not been decided who will head them yet. National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser will be chairperson of the assembly’s finance committee while Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri will head the house and libraries committee. Related: ECP suspends membership of Fawad Chaudhry, Ahsan Iqbal and 330 other lawmakers The PML-N has said that no former ministers will be made committee chairpersons. It is expected to put forward the names of newcomers for the chairperson positions. The party is likely to head nine committees. The PPP has submitted its names for the committee heads to the speaker. Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s name has been submitted for the position of head of the foreign affairs committee. Aftab Shaban Mirani, Naveed Qamar, Mustafa Mehmood, Ghulam Mustafa Shah and Nafisa Shah are likely to be appointed heads of committees. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, chief whip Amir Dogar, the PPP’s Khursheed Shah, Naveed Qamar, Shazia Marri and the PML-N’s Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Sanaullah and Rana Tanvir participated in the talks between the government and opposition.