Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Raja pressurised officials for funds’ release, SC told

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) Tahir Mehmood told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the finance secretary and a deputy finance secretary pressurised the AGPR officials for release of funds in March this year, as the PPP-led coalition government’s tenure was ending and the Election Commission of Pakistan had imposed a ban on transfer of development funds.

Mehmood made this revelation during the hearing of suo motu case about doling out of billions of rupees by former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the form of development funds. He told the court that the AGPR had clearly written to the Finance Ministry that withdrawal of funds after ECP ban amounts to pre-poll rigging and is a clear violation of relevant rules. “My predecessor went on 40 days’ leave after he received directions to issue funds under PM’s special directives. Later, I was pressurised to release funds for PWP-II schemes,” he added. The court issued notice to former finance secretary Abdul Khaliq asking him to submit a reply in this regard.

It also directed the AGP to conduct a special audit of all the development schemes initiated under Peoples Welfare Program PWP-II by former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in 2012 and 2013. A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, is hearing suo motu case over a news report of Daily Times that former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf doled out billions of rupees in the form of development funds ten days after having completed his tenure in office.

The CJP said in his remarks, “There has been credibility issue in our country. We find it difficult how any agency can be assigned the task of investigating the procedure adopted to release the hefty funds and how the money had been spent.” AGPR Mehmood told the court that his office had asked Pak PWD, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), PEPCO, MEPCO and WAPDA to provide details of the money released to them and how much of it has been spent, but so far no response has been received from them.

Meanwhile, a legal adviser of the SNGPL told the court that the company had received Rs 5.8 billion for provision of gas to Gujar Khan and Rs 1.4 billion had been spent while the rest of the money was deposited in the assignment account of the federal government. PakPWD director general told the bench that his department had received Rs 21 billion for 6,274 development schemes, and so far it has spent Rs 15.5 billion and had completed 3,803 schemes, while 1744 are under process and the rest have not yet been initiated.

Earlier, during the hearing Attorney General of Pakistan Irfan Qadir informed the bench that he did not have required instructions and information about the projects and would only be able to assist the court after getting the needed details.

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

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