Senate was told on Wednesday that the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) has spent rupees five billion in addition to the 27.8 million-dollar foreign donations without audit. The Senators from both sides of the house also demanded of the government to form a house committee to probe into the irregularities and bring the responsible elements to justice.
Leader of the house in the Senate Mian Raza Rabbani informed the house on a point of order about the suspension of transferring of Rs 174 million funds for the NCHD the expenses. He said that the commission Chairman refused to give expenses details to the government, which was the main reason to stop transferring Rs 174 million funds to the NCHD. He said that there was no audit report of the previous funds spent by the NCHD since its establishment.
Rabbani said the NCHD had spent rupees five billion in addition to 27.8 million-dollar donations of different international donor agencies, but the institute had no audit reports. "If the house has consensus, then I will write to the Prime Minister, seeking the audit of the NCHD on behalf of the Senators," Rabbani said.
He said that NCHD Chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf was not ready to share details about the funds as to how and where these were spent. Senator Mohammad Azam Swati said that the Commission was established to develop manpower, but the idea remained counter-productive when its chairman started to play cricket, leaving it unattended.
He said that now the Commission had become controversial and a committee be formed to probe into the irregularities. Senator Kamil Ali Agha, leader of the opposition in Senate, said that audit of the Commission be conducted and all the public money be recovered from those at the helm of affairs regardless of any favour.
Meanwhile, Senator Raza Rabbani also informed the house that Balochistan government had allotted 60,000 acres of land to Pakistan Air Force in Lasbella district at the rate of Rs 600 per acre to be used as firing range.
In this regard, he added, an agreement had been signed between the government of Balochistan and the PAF and the money from the land would be spent on the socio-economic development of the local people. Baloch Senator Dr Abdul Malik objected that the land belonged to the area people and how a government could give it to any other party at cheaper rates.
On the demand of Baloch Senators, the issue was referred to the defence committee to probe into the matter. On another point of order of Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro of JUI regarding the tribal and feudal clashes in the interior Sindh, Rabbani said that the Inspector General of Sindh Police had briefed the Sindh Chief Minister on the issue and soon a committee would be formed to star dialogue with the tribal heads.
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