Speaker National Assembly, Fahmida Mirza has turned down the resolution submitted by opposition members in National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue demanding the removal of Chairperson of the Committee Fauzia Wahab. Sources at NA secretariat said the resolution was dropped on the ground that it carries the signatures of only four members against 17-member committee.
Even the signatures of those members were missing on written resolution who vowed to remove Fauzia Wahab as chairperson of revenue committee. The treasury and opposition benches belonging to MQM, JUI-F, ANP, PML-N and PML-Q had agreed to put forward a resolution demanding of the Speaker National Assembly to remove Fauzia Wahab from this slot owing to her alleged inability to run the affairs of the committee at the end of last committee's meeting.
In last meeting of the committee, out of the total 17-member committee, ten members including Rasheed Godail of MQM, Maulana Qasim of JUI-F, Bushra Gohar of ANP, Kashmala Tariq of PML-Q, Shahid Khakan Abbasi of PML-N, Khawaja Asif of PML-N agreed to pass a resolution and submitted to the NA Speaker for removal of the chairperson of the committee.
Talking to Business Recorder, Shahid Khakan Abbasi confirmed that the resolution was returned to them. He said Speaker NA in an informal chat informed them that she was unable to proceed with this resolution as it had signature of only four members. Subsequently, National Assembly Secretariat had returned the resolution to movers.
He claimed that four more members signed the resolution and expected two more to sign it shortly. "Despite having majority vote in the committee on finance and revenue, she can't be removed from her slot under the rules of business of parliament", he urged. He explained it might be a loophole in rules of business as selection of chairman/chairperson committee was described in rules but no specific provision could be provoked for his/her removal.
At a time when Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) Bill 2010 and other taxation measures are under discussion in committee, majority of members are showing their distrust on the chairperson Fauzia Wahab. The whole episode started from last meeting of standing committee. Kashmala Tariq uttered some hot words against Minister of State for Finance and Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar.
She alleged that the minister said on television that the government would collect Rs 22 billion with imposition of RGST in last six months (January-June) period of the current fiscal year but the business community was estimating Rs 220 billion revenue impact because of the RGST. She asked the FBR to explain the facts in this regard. At this point, heated debate triggered between the members and chairperson of the committee and the meeting was adjourned in a hurry.
Talking to reporters outside the Parliament House, Shahid Khakan Abbasi, Kashmala Tariq and Rasheed Godail alleged that Fouzia was not serious to run the committee in smooth manner so they were submitting a resolution for her removal. In such a situation, the committee meetings, which were earlier scheduled from December 9 to 11 were cancelled.
Abbasi said speaker NA should take the matter seriously and replace the chairperson with Shahnaz Wazir Ali or some other member. "We will not boycott this important session but wishing to replace Fauzia with some other member to keep the working of committee smooth", he said.