ISLAMABAD: Four members of the National Assembly of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are lead contenders for the office of NA Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue.
These lead contenders include Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Qaiser Sheikh, Malik Pervaiz and Danyal Aziz” a well placed source in the committee branch disclosed to this scribe here on Tuesday.
National Assembly Standing Committee will elect chairman on this Friday. The office had been vacant since June 19, this year when the Supreme Court de-seated PML-N’s Omar Ayub Khan from the National Assembly constituency NA-19 Haripur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold a by-election there.
Later, on August 17, this year Pakistan Muslim League -N’s Babar Nawaz won the by-elections from this constituency while PTI candidate Dr Raja Amir Zaman came in at second place.
Shaza Fatima Khawaja is one of the few politicians who is educated and does not have a fake degree. She also acted as acting chairperson of the committee during an interim period of suspension of membership of Omar Ayub and later she stepped down for making room for Omar Ayub, who remained chairman of the committee till the judgment of the court.
Similarly, Danyal Aziz, previously, was a member of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) (PML-Q) and had served as the chairman of the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB), an institution of the Government of Pakistan.
Pervaiz Malik is the brother of Malik Qayyum, the close companion of former dictator Pervaiz Musharraf. He is also brother of Yasmeen Rehman, who was member of national assembly from the Pakistan People’s Party, the archrival of the PML-N.
Qaiser Ahmad Sheikh is a successful businessman and had been was president of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) from 1987 to 1988. He was president of Aiwan-e-Tijarat-o-Sanat Hospital from 1998 to 1999. He represented Pakistan at the 7th General Assembly and 12th Executive Committee of the Islamic Islamic Chambers of Commerce in Cairo.
As per rules of business of the National Assembly Chairman of the Standing Committee,, in addition to the salary, allowances and facilities admissible as a member, is entitled to an honorarium of twelve thousand and seven hundred rupees per month; office accommodation with necessary furniture and equipment;
One 1300 CC car and three hundred and sixty liters of petrol per month for local use and other facilities and services of a Private Secretary in Basic Pay Scale 17, Stenographer in Basic Pay Scale 15, Driver in Basic Pay Scale 4 and one Naib Qasid in Basic Pay Scale 1; telephone facility in the office to a limit of 7 [ten] thousand rupees per month.
