Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Shehbaz Sharif on Friday chaired the first meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and assured to make it an effective body.
In the first meeting, members of the committee decided to prioritize matters of public welfare. In this regard, PPP lawmaker Sherry Rehman suggested that the matter of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Pakistan International Airline (PIA) should be taken up first. The committee agreed with her proposal.
Shehbaz Sharif was elected as the PAC chairman unopposed earlier this year while he was under the custody of the National Accountability Bureau. He was released on a production order issued by the National Assembly Speaker to let him attend the meeting.
Speaking on the occasion, Shehbaz said that the PAC had done a commendable job in the past. He said the PAC was an important forum and it should work diligently and without any discrimination. He said that he would not sit in the meetings for reviewing the audit paras pertaining to projects undertaken by the PML-N government. In this regard, he said sub-committees would be established to deal with audit paras of the PML-N tenure.
Briefing the meeting, the Additional Secretary PAC said that audit reports of last eight years (2010-11 to 2017-18) were pending before the committee. The total number of audit paras were 1,843. He also informed the committee that since 2008, the opposition leader in National Assembly had served as the chairman of the PAC. The committee can call any department, institutions and any person from any department and also check performance of any one.
The PAC chairman was briefed on the working of the committee on Friday in a session also attended by the heads of NAB and the FIA and the auditor general of Pakistan.
Speaking to the media at the Parliament House earlier in the day, Shehbaz expressed concern over the political situation in the country. “Accountability has nothing to do with what’s happening, this is injustice and transgression,” he said. “We respect the judiciary but we disagree with NAB court’s decision,” the PML-N leader added.
The second session of the committee will be held on Monday, December 31. The committee was informed that it was the sole authority of the PAC to send any enquiry to either NAB or FIA. It was also suggested that any enquiry sent to the investigative agency should be time-barred with the agencies concerned required to respond to the committee within a specific time period. The PAC was also informed that the such committees in the US and UK not only checked the audit paras but also checked and monitored the government and organisations performance in their respective countries.
Leader of the House in Senate Shibli Faraz pointed out that any mistake once committed by any department should not be repeated. In response, the Auditor General of Pakistan said it was responsibility of the executive to ensure implementation of the PAC directives.
Members of the PAC also agreed to constitute sub-committees so as to divide the work. The committee also asked the NAB to present a detailed presentation about its functional to the PAC.
The PAC appreciated the performance of previous PACs held under Ch Nisar Ali Khan, Khurshid Shah and Nadeem Afzal Chan.
Earlier this month, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government conceded the chairmanship of PAC to Shehbaz, almost three months after a stalemate over the key position. The PTI government had long stuck to its stance that the opposition should come up with any name other than Shehbaz’s for the chairmanship as he was accused in the Ashiana Housing scandal, but the opposition was of the view that past traditions of the National Assembly should be honoured.
Published in Daily Times, December 29th 2018.
