ISLAMABAD: The tax returns of former president Pervez Musharraf could not go public on Wednesday due to the legal controversy over handing and taking over of the record between the officials of Federal Board of Revenue and the Auditor General at the Public Accounts Committee meeting.
The legal row between FBR and AGP high-ups enraged PAC member Khawaja Asif who walked out of the meeting, saying the former president was calling shots from London and the officials of FBR and AGP were showing their loyalties to him.
The controversy on Musharraf’s income tax returns file started when FBR Chairman, SohailAhmed told PAC Chairman Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan that he had brought Musharraf’s tax returns record with him in accordance with Khawaja Asif’s direction and would submit the record to Auditor General Tanveer Ali Agha.
As the committee started settling audit objections over the audit report 2008-09 of FBR, Ch Nisar left the chair, asking Yasmeen Rehman to preside over the proceedings of the meeting.
Khawaja Asif asked Auditor General Tanveer Ali Agha to hand him over Musharraf’s tax returns’ file. Agha replied that he had yet not received it. Khawaja Asif asked for the said record from the FBR chairman who sent his man to the auditor general to hand him over the file but the latter refused to do so, saying first he wanted to check the rules whether he could make that record public or not.
Amid the arguments between Ahmed and Agha, Khawaja Asif got infuriated and said everyone was ready to slug mud on politicians but nobody was even ready to share the details of tax returns of a former dictator. He said Pervez Musharraf was still calling shots from London.
“On my request for Musharraf’s tax returns, the officials have mentioned legal complications. I walk out of the meeting,” he said and went out of the committee room.
Earlier, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan directed the secretary communication and the NHA chairman to recover all government vehicles from the officials who were entitled to use them within three days. He also directed the Ministry of Communications to present accurate report regarding the number of official vehicles under its use.
According to the report of the Ministry of Communications, some former officials of the ministry and NHA were using government vehicles. The PAC chairman directed the high-ups of the ministry to review the report and present it again within four days. He said it was the responsibility of the government as well as bureaucracy to check the illegal use of official vehicles.
He added PAC would ask the Finance Ministry to freeze budgetary grants of the ministries involved in financial irregularities. “The PAC will also move a summary to the PM Secretariat to check illegal and unauthorized use of government vehicles,” he added.
