The election scheduled for Wednesday to pick chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament has been postponed until further notice. 

The main opposition CPN-UML has been demanding that the leadership of PAC, one of the most influential among a dozen parliamentary committees, be handed over to it. Earlier CPN (Maoist Centre) leader Janardan Sharma was heading the 51-meber PAC until he was appointed minister for energy. 

Maoist Centre Chief Whip Tek Bahadur Basnet said his party was ready to handover the leadership of PAC to the UML, provided that the UML relinquishes the leadership of any other parliamentary committee. Currently, UML and the Nepali Congress are leading four committees each. The Maoist Centre heads only one parliamentary committee. 

“The UML will be leading five committees if PAC leadership is given to it,” said Basnet. “If the UML refuses to budge from its stance, we will field our own candidate.”

UML Chief Whip Bhanubhakta Dhakal said the scheduled election was postponed to seek consensus among parties.

“The UML is ready to let the NC and the Maoist Centre divide remaining new committees between them if we are given the PAC leadership.”