The meeting of Public Accounts Committee of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly scheduled to be held on October 17 (Monday) has been postponed for an indefinite period as certain provincial departments have failed to furnish relevant working papers in this regard, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Well placed sources said expressing indignation over the laxity on the part of concerned provincial departments, speaker of the provincial assembly Kiramatullah Khan, who is also the PAC chairman, asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary to take due action against the departments that failed to furnish the working papers. Despite repeated assurances extended by the Assembly Secretariat, the departments concerned did not bother to provide the working papers or arrange pre-PAC meetings, besides committing the “mistake” of not sending either to the audit and finance departments for comments.
While lamenting such apathy on part of provincial departments, the speaker termed the role of PAC a vital one in the province for financial discipline and for such important meeting of PAC, excuses for furnishing working papers was intolerable. Pakistan Today learnt that the speaker called the performance of departments dismal, adding that lapses could not be ignored and demanded due action against the responsible heads of relevant departments. The speaker would be calling the PAC meeting shortly again and all departments had been directed to furnish working papers this time along.