The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday sought details of bureaucrats and judges who had been allotted two plots in Islamabad after filing affidavits for not owning any land in the federal capital.
The PAC sought details of the rules under which two plots had been allotted to people in Defence Housing Authority (DHA).
The PAC also directed the Ministries of Communications and Defence to resolve dispute of toll plazas between National Highway Authority (NHA) and Frontier Works Organization (FWO).
The committee directed the Ministry of Defence to submit an inquiry report into the manhandling of a Saudi Arabian official by Airport Security Force personnel at Islamabad International Airport in the next meeting. It also directed the departments concerned to submit a list of government-owned autonomous organizations who refused to get their accounts audited by the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP). The PAC chairman observed that the committee would recommend to the National Assembly not to approve budget for those state-owned autonomous organization who had not got their accounts audited by AGP. Later, officials of the FWO and NHA present in the meeting held detailed discussions and came up with an arrangement for the resolution of the toll plaza issue, which the PAC turned down.
It directed FWO to start depositing revenue collected from 54 toll plazas in NHA’s bank accounts within a week.
It also directed NHA to settle its accounts with FWO by making payment of liabilities as soon as possible.
The PAC gave three months’ time limit to the Ministry of Communication for completing the entire process of tendering toll plazas and to submit a progress report to the PAC on a weekly basis.
The PAC was informed that the defence secretary had constituted an inquiry committee headed by CAA DG to probe into the incident of manhandling of the Saudi official at Islamabad International Airport and committee had submitted its report to the secretary within 24 hours. The PAC then directed the Ministry of Defence to present the report to the committee in the next meeting.
