Patcharawat signed himself up for law study committee

The National Legislative Assembly’s constitution and organic law study committee allows legislators who would like to take part in the law-scrutiny committee to sign themselves up, NLA whip member Wallop Tangkananurak explained yesterday.
Names would be submitted to NLA vice president Surachai Liengboonlertchai for the law study committee to endorse, Wallop said.
If the number of people signed up exceeded the seats available, the NLA would decide who would take the posts, he added. 
“In the case of Pol Gen Patcharawat, he has signed up to sit on the panel following the process,” the legislator said. “But regarding the criticism whether it is appropriate, it is up to Patcharawat how he considers the matter.”
Another NLA member, Somchai Sawangkarn, said yesterday that Patcharawat sitting on the panel was not a problem so long as he does not propose anything that might be considered to be in his own interests.
Controversy arose last week after Patcharawat appeared in the list of legislators considering the organic law governing NACC. Patcharawat has been accused of being unusually rich and the case is being probed by the agency.
Critics were concerned whether it was appropriate to have him on the panel when he was a stakeholder.
The president of the controversial vetting committee, Pol Gen Chatchawal Suksomjit, said yesterday the committee had already convened once on Monday and the criticism involving Patcharawat had not been raised in the meeting. 
“The committee discussed only the law. The criticism is a personal perspective of each individual. It is not against the law and poses no problem to the meeting, so we did not discuss it,” he said.