—– MPAs from the ruling party and opposition, along with assembly staffers and government officers have spent millions of rupees on personal foreign trips by exploiting the public exchequer
PESHAWAR: Millions of rupees from the public exchequer have been spent on foreign trips by members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly and government officials, even though foreign trips were banned after the provincial budget session.
Members of the provincial assembly (MPAs), provincial ministers, advisors to MPAs, parliamentary secretaries and even the opposition members of the assembly have used the public money to spend a lavish lifestyle.
Per the document received by this scribe under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right of Information Act 2013, the provincial assembly’s special secretary for information technology had visited eight countries during his tenure, while the blue-eyed special secretary of the speaker of the provincial assembly visited six countries on funds taken from the public exchequer.
In many cases, the officials and MPAs visited foreign countries on personal business, which cost a loss of Rs 53.6 million during the government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the province. According to the documents, KP Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser had travelled abroad 10 times on public tax money, including six trips to England, and one trip each to the United States, Iran, Scotland and Africa. Qaiser spent Rs 5.5 million on his trips while Information Technology Special Secretary Attaullah Khan had spent Rs 4.1 million on personal foreign visits by taking money from the public exchequer. In addition, Rs 2.9 million was spent by the KP Assembly Special Secretary to the Speaker Syed Wiqar Shah on foreign trips.
At the time of election campaign before the 2013 general elections, a large number of PTI candidates had made tall claims of practicing modesty and vowed to eliminate the VIP culture from the political spectrum of Pakistan. The leadership of the party had also made promises to the public to convert some of the government buildings into universities. Unfortunately, none of these promises have been fulfilled by the party so far.
Besides, PTI leadership had also claimed to make the system more transparent and accountable, but the tall evaporated into thin air after members of the same party utilised public tax money for their own personal agendas. There were others who also enjoyed lavish lifestyles on public money by jumping into the ‘enjoyment’ bandwagon as members of the opposition parties and government officials also decided to use public money for personal reasons.
Moreover, the documents also revealed the names of dozens of assembly officials, as well as MPAs who had shamelessly used public money for foreign trips. The officials included, Tahir Nadeem, Arif Mehmood, KP Assembly Secretariat Secretary Nasrullah Khattak, Amjad Ali, Hidayatullah, and other officials who have spent over Rs 3 million on foreign trips.
In addition, opposition leader in the provincial assembly Lutfur Rahman, MPAs Zia Bangash, Jaffar Shah, Anisa Zeb, Shaukat Yousafzai, Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha, Nighat Orakzai, Mufti Fazal Ghafur and many others have also utilised funds from the public exchequer to travel abroad.
