The Supreme Court has ordered Federal Audit DG Dr Asifur Rehman to conduct audit of Rs 180 million utilised from the secret fund of Information Ministry within three weeks.
The three-member bench under the chairmanship of Justice Jawad S Khawaja started hearing the case on Thursday. Attorney General Irfan Qadir raised objections about the publicising and audit of the secret fund of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. He said his character assassination was being carried out in the media and the court should take notice of it.
The bench sought reply from the attorney general, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and other concerned on May 2.
Justice Jawad S Khawaja said the amount was taken from the pockets of the public, so the court would take account of every single penny.
Clean journalists would come out from the audit, the court said.
It asked the Ministry of Information to provide the list of beneficiaries of the secret fund after the attestation of three officer of the ministry. “If the list proves bogus, the court will take action against the officer who attested it.”
Asma Jahangir appeared before the court on behalf of senior journalists. She said the court had no right to dishonour anyone, so the list may be removed from the website, however, the court rejected the plea.
Federal Audit DG Dr Asifur Rehman told the court that he appeared on behalf of the Auditor General of Pakistan and that they received the list and order of the court two days earlier. “The matter pertains to Rs 860 million and its audit may be completed within three weeks or more time.”
Justice Jawad S Khawaja said many controversies had been created about the usage of secret fund as it had not any audit in the past.
“Once the audit would be conducted everything would become clear.”
Senior Journalist Shakeel Turabi said officials of the ministry had not added some names of their blue-eyed journalists in the list that was handed over to the court.
To this, the court said their names would also come out.
Absar Alam said his community wanted audit of secret fund but the name of those innocent people should be removed who did not benefit from the secret fund.
The court adjourned the hearing until May 2.
It is sure and certain that the audit of Ministry will not be conducted promptly and honestly.There are many reasons behind this.For fear of losing the jobs and to avoid the re-actions from Seniors,the real and correct audit is out of question.It is only wasteage of time and befooling the nation.
The SC is happy to order audits of funds of everyone else in the world but yet they refuse to have their own funds audited saying that it is an attack on their independence. If SC has nothing to hide why won't they allow audits of their own funds? Could it be that they are illegally enriching themselves? My bet is that they are. They should work as circus clowns. That would be a more befitting job for them.
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