The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Friday left a question mark over its own impartiality as it reversed a decision to send a dubious multibillion rupees contract case to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for a probe because of opposition by former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, a private TV channel reported.
However, the PAC called the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to give a briefing on a six-year delay in finalisation of an inquiry into Rs 4.8 billion irregular award of contracts by the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in 2012.
This is the second time, the PAC, whose chairman, Shehbaz Sharif, is also facing a NAB probe, summoned the top accountability body. The PAC had decided to summon NAB earlier also but had later dropped the idea.
During the tenure of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in 2010, the BISP, then led by Farzana Raja, had irregularly given Rs 2.74 billion contract to the State Life Insurance Corporation in violation of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules. The incumbent BISP secretary also admitted before the PAC that the contract had been awarded in violation of rules and the prices were also changed after award of the contract. After hearing the facts, Shehbaz Sharif directed that the matter be referred to the FIA with directions to probe the matter and give a report in two weeks. However, Ashraf forcefully defended the BISP position and claimed that there was no financial loss in the case and matter should not be referred to the FIA.
“Such investigations would bring a bad name and tomorrow there will be headline in the press and the TV channels would scream that another billions of rupees scam surfaced,” said the former PM while defending the alleged irregularity committed during his government. Ashraf alleged that the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) is bringing cases of benign nature to the PAC. He said he can also point out hundreds of irregularities committed by the AGP department. Due to resistance by the former PM, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Fakhar Imam proposed an escape route for the PPP. Imam suggested that the matter should be referred back to the Departmental Accounts Committee, headed by the BISP secretary, with a direction to give a report.
Shehbaz endorsed Imam’s proposal and reversed his own decision to send the case to the FIA. He ignored the protest lodged by AGP Javed Jahangir who argued that the PAC is diluting its authority by indulging in arguments whether there was any financial loss in irregularly awarded contract.
Published in Daily Times, February 2nd 2019.
