House Speak­er Jagdeo Singh has come un­der re­newed crit­i­cism from the Op­po­si­tion fol­low­ing a rul­ing that spared him re­fer­ral to the Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee over al­le­ga­tions of bias in his role as Chair­man of the Pub­lic Ac­counts and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC).

The is­sue stems from a de­ter­mi­na­tion by Deputy Speak­er Dr Aiy­na Ali on Fri­day that Singh’s con­duct did not dis­close a pri­ma fa­cie breach of priv­i­lege war­rant­i­ng con­sid­er­a­tion by the Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee.

Singh had been ac­cused by Op­po­si­tion mem­bers of fail­ing to dis­close pri­or pro­fes­sion­al in­volve­ment in mat­ters linked to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal im­por­ta­tion while pre­sid­ing over a PAAC in­quiry in­to the same sec­tor.