A sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has directed the Foreign Ministry to recover Rs 850 million Pakistani ambassadors to various countries spent on their 'luxuries' back in 1995.
At a meeting here on Tuesday, the sub-committee headed by MNA Riaz Fatiana also called for fixing responsibilities against whom involved in neglecting these illegal expenditures.
An Auditor General report of the Foreign Ministry's accounts for 1995 revealed that the telephone bills of Pakistani ambassadors to various countries surpassed a prescribed limit for them by Rs 850 million.
And when the Finance Ministry released this amount a chief protocol officer dealing with the matter deposited it in his personal account.
When came before the PAC during its meeting some two months back the state of affairs irked the members and a sub-committee was then formed to conduct a parliamentary probe into the scam.
At its inaugural meeting, the sub-committee was shocked to learn that ambassadors did incur this amount and the Foreign Ministry had neglected the matter.
Rather, the committee observed the ministry had been providing the culprits a cover by not reporting the matter to any of the investigation agencies.
The sub-committee termed it "obnoxious and unfortunate" that ambassadors who enjoyed huge perks and privileges spent taxpayers' money this way.
The meeting directed the Foreign Ministry to recover the amount from the then chief protocol officer and report back within a month.
Another audit objection said Pakistani high commissioner to Britain hired an apartment at 0.18 million pounds without the approval of the Finance Ministry during the same year.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry role in this case too was of the criminal nature, the sub-committee observed.
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