The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) seemed helpless against the powerful military establishment as it had to extend the deadline for the army’s report on the involvement of three former generals in the multi-million rupee National Logistics Cell (NLC) scam.
A committee formed by General Headquarters (GHQ) was ordered to submit the report by June 30 but it did not, a source in the PAC told Pakistan Today on Friday. According to PAC Chairman Nisar Ali Khan, June 30 was the final deadline for the report.
Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had ordered a high-level inquiry into the alleged NLC scam at the end of 2010 after the PAC was all set to give a sweeping verdict on the matter in the first week of December in the light of three inquiry reports that confirmed massive irregularities committed by two lieutenant generals and a major general with the active collaboration of two civilian officers.
A serving corps commander was nominated to head the inquiry along with two majors general as members. The PAC had recommended the GHQ to take action and recover the losses from the former top military officials involved in the NLC scam, which dates back to 2008. Between 2003 and 2008, the management of the NLC – the commercial logistics arm of the military – borrowed Rs 4.2 billion from commercial banks and invested the money along with pensioners’ funds in the stock market.
The PAC has been struggling to dispose of the case since February 2009. Defence officials had told the PAC on June 13 that the GHQ’s internal “Court of Inquiry” had completed its report and the military top brass was reviewing it and it would be submitted to the parliamentary committee.
