ISLAMABAD: Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday strongly protested against Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for preventing federal finance secretary from appearing in the PAC meeting where he was summoned to answer for the release of Rs3.9 billion to Captain(r) Safdar without taking the parliament into confidence.
PAC Chairman Syed Khurshid Shah alleged that PM Abbasi wanted to sabotage the PAC, and vowed to discourage each “ill-designed” effort to debilitate parliamentary committee on public accounts.
Shah alleged in his outburst against the incumbent government that the premier has not allowed his finance secretary to attend the PAC meeting which was convened to discuss the government’s generosity for the son in law of the ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
With the consent of the ruling political party members of the PAC, Shah directed the PAC secretariat to write a letter to the PM seeking his explanation for not allowing the secretary to attend the meeting.
The issue of disbursement of Rs3.9billion to Captain (r) Safdar in the name of development schemes in his constituency NA-21 Mansehra was taken up in the last meeting of PAC and it was decided to summon the secretary finance to seek his explanation over breaching the government’s financial rules and procedure.
