The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led Sindh government is reluctant to allow the Sindh Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to review the audit reports of various provincial departments for the years coming under its four-year tenure, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Well-placed sources told Pakistan Today that despite the fact that the PAC has no powers to suspend any corrupt official or file any reports, the powers that be do not give any feedbacks or applause the committee’s efforts that is doing its best to investigate massive misappropriations of the departmental funds.
PAC chairman Jam Tamachi Unnar and all its members – from the PPP and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) – have been running the affairs in a transparent manner, but the ruling leadership does not want the body to investigate the audit of funds in a bid to hide its alleged corruption, they said.
The PAC was formed on December 2, 2008 through a notification NO PAS/Legis-PAC/2008/486, with MPAs Unnar, Ghulam Mujahid Isran, Pir Syed Muhammad Bachal Shah, Shama Arif Mithani, Moin Aamir Pirzada, Mohammad Shoaib and Dr Muhammad Rafiq Banbhan as members.
The committee was tasked to settle down the audit reports of the financial years from 2003-04, 2004-5, 2005-6, 2006-7 and 2007-8.
Interestingly, the accounts committee was restrained from going into the financial matters of the present regime, as it did not want to probe misappropriations made during the tenure of the present government, the sources claimed.
“We are working honestly to recover the misappropriated money from the on-duty and retired officers involved and deposit the amount into the provincial exchequer. However, the bureaucracy is not cooperating with the PAC, causing serious hindrances in functioning of the public accounts committee,” a committee member on condition of anonymity told Pakistan Today.
“Shah Sahib [Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah] has restrained the PAC to look into the financial matters of fiscal years 2008-9, 2009-10 and 2011-12 or to look into the audit reports of departments,” he added.
Recently, the PAC chairman had postponed the meeting scheduled for investigating financial affairs at major public universities for their officials’ lethargic attitude towards the committee.
At that time, the PAC members discussed in detail the non-cooperation of the major universities, departments and their officials.
Expressing his anger over the matter, Unnar had told the media that he could not preside over the PAC meeting as the institutions, major universities and departments are not even ready to attend the meetings despite repeated reminders.
Furthermore, the PAC chairman had ordered his staff to forward letters to Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad, chief minister and the chief secretary among other authorities concerned to take serious notice of the attitude and ensure active participation of the institutions.
Govt hesitant to allow PAC peek into its tenure?
