ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) headed by Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday reviewed files of alleged financial irregularities in the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) pertaining to land utilisation of and the matter of grants to the Airport Security Force.
The auditors informed the meeting that a grant worth Rs21 million was approved for the Civil Aviation Division for the year 2011-12 during the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) tenure.
They lamented that this supplementary grant was never approved by parliament, even though as per law, it was the Finance Ministry’s responsibility to take the approval.
They also shed light on five acres of land that belonged to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in Karachi and was leased to a private party in 1992, resulting in financial damage worth over Rs5 billion.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Rana Tanveer Hussain suggested a ban to be imposed on grants, observing that expenditures preceded approvals, which was in blatant disregard of the law.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leader Syed Fakhar Imam said that the extent of parliament’s power regarding money bill and grants needed to be determined, while Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam’s (JUI) Shahida Akhtar Ali and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Sherry Rehman opined that grants could be sought as per needs.
The PAC, after the discussion, decided to form a committee headed by Shahida Akhtar into the matter, ruling that the primary committee of the PAC will only look into audit complains of Rs50 million or more, while all the rest will be redirected to a supplementary audit committee.
MINI-BUDGET:
The committee also took up the mini-budget by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Shehbaz said though the issue was of dire importance the government needed to come up with a long term solution for the issue.
On this, Finance Minister Asad Umar informed the meeting that the federal cabinet has been keeping a record of all matters related to the mini-budget since October 15, 2018 in line with the Supreme Court’s (SC) orders.
He assured that the government was aware of issues in the system and would be paying special attention to solving every issue.
Moreover, the matter of naming the new Islamabad International Airport was discussed. Members of the meeting unanimously agreed to name it after former prime minister (PM) Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.
However, it was suggested that the mismanagement and irregularities that were being reported at the airport should be resolved at the earliest.
“At PAC when records of ‘Islamabad Airport’ showed the original name of ‘New Benazir Bhutto International Airport’ all members across the political board endorsed our advice to revert to the right name of the airport. Shaheed Benazir Bhutto is our country’s pride,” Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Senator Sherry Rehman tweeted after the meeting.
