The Ruet-e-Hilal Committee came under spotlight during the Senate meeting, as Senator Farhatullah Babar claimed that the committee had been set up only on the basis of a resolution passed by the National Assembly in January 1974, and not by any legislation. Farhatullah Babar, during the question hour of the Senate on Friday, asked whether the resolution for setting up the Ruet Committee, passed by NA on January 23, 1974, had been formalised by making legislation or by framing rules. The minister in charge startled everyone when he said that neither any legislation had been made nor any rules framed thus far. Farhatullah Babar said that it was unprecedented as no official body could be set up merely on the basis of parliamentary resolutions. The Ruet Committee has 26 members and each is treated as grade 20 officer of the federal government with respect to TA, DA, according to the official reply. Had it not been for the questioning of the Senate, the body would have gone on to function in illegality for another few decades.
The government must conduct a thorough and honest survey of the bureaucratic setup to scour it from unnecessary and unauthorised offices, which drain the public exchequer and clog up effective functioning.The patronage system that is the bedrock – and malaise – of Pakistani politics has spawned countless sham bodies, whose only job is to leech from the public funds.However, the Ruet-e-Halal committee has served a purpose, and some would argue that the parliament did intend to set it up, even if it did not write the necessary legislation.Yet the matter doesn’t end there.The resolution proposed that a new chairman be appointed to the committee every 3 years, but the incumbent, Mufti Muneebur Rehman, has held on to the office for the past 15 year, without any explanation or cause. Any favourable construing of the matter is lost here; the learned Mufti has been illegally drawing government salary for 12 years – an amount that must now be repaid, and the body disbanded until it is properly formed again.
pk.shafaqna.com
