WEDNESDAY JULY 04: 21 judges given plots during Musharraf's regime: PAC declines to accommodate SC registrar's statement

ISLAMABAD: As many as 21 serving and retired judges were given residential plots in various sectors of the Islamabad during the government of the then President, Pervez Musharraf, in the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee was told on Tuesday. The committee declined to accommodate a statement made by Registrar of Supreme Court of Pakistan to the secretariat of PAC.
It had argued that the matter of conduct of judges could not be discussed at such forum. Nadeem Afzal Gondal chaired the committee meeting on Tuesday and reviewed the lists of those judges and bureaucrats who were the beneficiary of plots in Pervez Musharraf/Shaukat Aziz government. The Ministry of Housing and Works presented this report to the committee.
Three judges of Supreme Court of Pakistan in service got plots. Acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Mian Shakarullah Jan, Justice Tassadaq Hussain Gilani and Justice Nasirul Mulk are in service, according to the list provided to the PAC. The retired judges include de facto Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan Abdul Hameed Dogar, former Justice Khalil Rehman Ramday, former Justice Javed Iqbal, former Justice Faqeer Mohammad Khokar, former Justice Nawaz Abbasi, former Justice Syed Saeed Ashhad, former Justice Sardar Raza, former Justice Javed Buter, former Justice Jamshad Ali, former Justice Ghulam Rabbani, former Justice Falk Sher, former Justice Zahid Hussain and former Secretary Ministry of Law and Justice Mansoor Ahmed, according to the list provided to the PAC.
The PAC also shared a list of 214 top bureaucrats having Grade-22 (serving and retired). Some of them were allotted two plots while others got one residential plot each. Those who received two plots are Muhammad Ismail Qureshi, Secretary M/O Food and Agri; Nawid Ahsan Secretary Finance, Major Syed Kamal Shah (Retd), Secretary Interior; Mohsin Aziz Hafeez, Secretary President's Secretariat; Muhammad Humayun Farshor Secretary Local Government; Muhammad Shakil Durrani Secretary, M/O Railway; Kamran Rasul, Secretary M/O Defence; Iftikhar Ahmad Khan, Controller General of Accounts; Mushtaq Ahmad Malik, Secretary BOI; Rukhsana Jabbar Memon, Auditor General Audit and Accounts Dept; Ghiasuddin. Secretary Railway; Badarul Islam, Sectt Group Establishment Division; Anwar Haider, Chairman Sindh Public Service Commission; Shoaib Suddle, Director General Intelligence Bureau; Samiul Haq Khalji, Secretary Housing and Works Division; Salman Faruqi, Secretary General to President, President Sectt; Muhammad Riffat Pasha, Secretary State and Frontier Division; Umer Khan Alisherzai, Ambassador to Pakistan Saudi Arabia; C/O Bag Section M/O Foreign Affair; Jalil Abbas Jillani, High Commissioner for Pakistan to Australia, M/O Foreign Affairs; G A Sabri, Special Secretary M/O Petroleum and Natural Resources; and others.
Further details of bureaucrats in grade 21 and 22 who were also allotted two residential plots during Musharraf regime will be submitted on July 5. The committee further directed the ministry to present the list of Army Generals who were also allotted plots. In his ruling, the Chairman Committee said that the allotment of plots was not different from National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). He demanded those judges and bureaucrats who were awarded two plots must be made accountable.
These plots were awarded in D-12, G-13 and G-14 sectors. Secretary Housing explained that these plots were distributed under a policy made by the then President Musharraf. The PAC was presented a letter received by the PAC secretariat from the Supreme Court of Pakistan Registrar dated December 1, 2011. In this regard, the Registrar of the Apex Court wrote in the letter that in the full Court meeting held on October 22, 2009 the first item on the agenda related to the question as to whether the registrar of the Court was obliged to appear before the PAC.
A full discussion took place in the said meeting and there was a general consensus that in view of various constitutional provisions relating to the autonomy and independence of this Court, the PAC did not have the jurisdiction to ask the Registrar or any other functionary of the Supreme Court to appear before it.
The scrutiny of the accounts of the Supreme Court is undertaken by a constitutionally mandated functionary for the purpose namely, the Auditor General of Pakistan. The Supreme Court on its own initiative has put in place a pre-audit mechanism, whereby transparency in its spending and accounting processes is ensured even before a sum is disbursed from the budget of the Court. This pre-audit exercise is undertaken in association with the office of the Auditor General of Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) in the premises of the Supreme Court building.
It is further emphasised that all payments scrutinised by the pre-audit cell of the AGPR are re-authenticated by the office of the Auditor General in accordance with its standard practices and procedures. It is to be clarified that the constitutional provisions guarantee the autonomy of the Court and are meant to ensure its independence form the other principal organs of the State viz, Parliament and the Executive.