Ministers excluded from Standing Committees

ISLAMABAD—In pursuance of the directives of NA Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain, federal ministers and ministers of state have been excluded from all standing committees and now the federal ministers will be ex-officio members of standing committees of their respective ministries.
NA sources told Online Tuesday that there were 42 standing committees of national assembly. Some federal ministers and state ministers were also included in the committees as members. Majority of treasury and opposition members had reservations about them. They were of the view that the federal ministers and state ministers be made ex-officio members of standing committees of their respective ministries. This is also laid down in the rules of national assembly that the federal minister and state minister will be ex-officio member of the standing committee of any ministry and department. However the ministers and state ministers were made members of standing committees ever since they were constituted.
Now the NA speaker has issued directives to exclude all the federal ministers and state minister from the standing committees as members.
NA committee branch has started implementing these directives. State minister for environment, Malik Amin Aslam has been excluded from standing committee of communication and replaced by Mir Zafar Ullah Jamali. Likewise state minister for tourism and culture Sumera Malik has been excluded from the standing committee of information technology and Sardar Tufail Ahmad has been inducted as member in her place.
The other ministers are also being excluded from standing committees and replaced by other members so that maximum number of legislators could become members of standing committee.—Online