The government’s sincerity to its claims of upholding the supremacy of parliament is exposed from the fact that it has failed to implement reports of two special parliamentary committees regarding lease of Pakistan Railways land in Lahore and massive financial fraud in National Assembly Employees Cooperative Housing Society (NAECHS) despite the passage of more than a year and nine months, respectively. PILDAT, a non-governmental organisation, in its recently released Citizens Reports on 3-year analysis of the performance of the National Assembly and Senate of Pakistan at one point says: “During these three years, Special Committee on Railways chaired by Nadeem Afzal Gondal presented a bold and landmark investigative report about the alleged irregularities in the award of lease of a Railway Golf Club land in Lahore during General Musharraf’s time. House and Library Committee also did a good job while investigating alleged irregularities in an Employees Housing Scheme.” PILDAT did not say a word about government’s apathy towards these investigative reports and failure in implementing “bold” and “landmark” reports.
The report on Pakistan Railways land lease scam was tabled in the House in October 2010, but until today, the report has not been brought in the Lower House even for opening a debate on the scandal worth billions of rupees. Though the special parliamentary committee was constituted by NA Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza herself in April 2008 to probe into the lease of Pakistan Railways land to a private consortium for developing a world standard golf club in Lahore at throwaway price, the National Assembly Secretariat is reluctant to table its report in the House for debate.
The Special Parliamentary Committee on Railways, after a laborious task of around 28 months, submitted its report to the NA Secretariat in the first week of October 2010, recommending the termination of a contract pertaining to the allotment of the land to Royal Palm Golf and Country Club. A source in the National Assembly told Pakistan Today that PML-Q MNA Sheikh Waqas Akram, who was also part of the 20-member parliamentary committee, submitted two applications with the NA Secretariat under Rule 237 of the Rules of Business of the National Assembly for initiating a debate on the committee’s report in the House, but his request was turned down. The committee chairman also submitted an application in this regard in October 2010.
The source said the requests were rejected on the direction of a top government functionary who had close ties with the lessee’s family, currently running the Royal Palm Golf & Country Club. When contacted, Sheikh Waqas Akram confirmed that he had submitted two separate applications in the 26th and 27th sessions, seeking a debate and voting on the parliamentary committee’s report, “but my applications were not entertained”.
The report had further recommended that action be initiated against former railway minister Lt-Gen (r) Javed Ashraf Qazi, former railway secretaries, chairmen and PR general manager, including Lt-Gen (r) Saeeduz Zafar, Khurshid Alam Khan and Maj Gen (r) Hamid Hassan Butt.
Similarly, officials of National Assembly Secretariat allegedly involved in depriving employees of the National Assembly of their hard-earned money in the name of a housing society have not been held accountable despite the House recommended punitive action against them. In February this year, the National Assembly through a unanimous vote endorsed a report of a parliamentary committee on House and Library that recommended strict disciplinary actions against the people who were found involved in robbing employees of the National Assembly in the name of a housing society.
Meanwhile, PILDAT in its report has raised questions over delay in passing new accountability bill saying that the public representatives in the parliament had failed to institute an effective accountability mechanism in the country. A bill originally titled ‘Holders of Public Office (Accountability) Bill, 2009’ is before the National Assembly since April 15, 2009. “Weak oversight of the parliament on crucial areas such as national security and foreign policy remains another area of concern,” the report said.
Analysis of the 3rd year of the National Assembly’s performance by PILDAT shows that in almost every sector of the legislative activity, the National Assembly witnessed a decrease in performance compared to that of the previous year. “A comparison of the legislative performance of the National Assembly with the Indian Lok Sabha for the calendar year 2010-2011 reveals that the Lok Sabha passed 60% more bills than the National Assembly of Pakistan during the same period,” it added.
Apparently, the decrease in performance can be attributed to growing political bickering between the treasury and opposition benches, as well as among ruling coalition partners.
Though PILDAT appreciated the performance of the Public Accounts Committee, it said the parliamentary watchdog had not met for the last fifty days, apparently due to indecisiveness of committee’s chairman over issue of tendering resignation from the chairmanship of the body.
“The Public Accounts Committee’s performance is also worth highlighting as the PAC held an average of 34 meetings per year during the past three years and it has cleared a backlog of audit reports for the past 9 years,” the PILDAT report said.
