Ahsan for setting deadline for submitting audited reports to PAC

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal has called on Parliament, the Auditor General of Pakistan and the Finance Division to set a clear deadline for submitting audited reports to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) within 12 months after the end of each financial year.

Speaking at an event titled “Strengthening Parliamentary Oversight – Public Accounts Committee” on Wednesday, the minister proposed several reforms to improve parliamentary oversight, make government departments more accountable and ensure timely action on audit findings.

Ahsan Iqbal also proposed setting up permanent research teams within the PAC, consisting of experts in research, accounting and data analysis, to help the committee perform its duties more effectively.

He said major development projects should undergo regular real-time and risk-based audits instead of being audited only in special cases. He also stressed that every PAC directive should have a clear deadline for implementation.

The minister proposed introducing a digital system to track compliance with PAC directives by linking the PAC Secretariat with the Auditor General’s office. He said that a digital dashboard would also show how much progress government departments had made in following the committee’s instructions.

He said Principal Accounting Officers (PAOs) who repeatedly ignored PAC directives should face consequences in their performance evaluations. He said that their Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) should also reflect how seriously they followed the committee’s recommendations.

He said development partners, including UNICEF, could support the initiative through training, technical assistance and the provision of necessary tools. However, he added that Parliament and its institutions must also strengthen their own professional capacity.

The minister said the Auditor General’s office should focus not only on financial spending but also on assessing the actual results of important social sector programmes. He added that the PAC should give special attention to whether these programmes were achieving their intended goals.

He also called for better coordination between the Auditor General’s office, the Planning Commission and the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) so that audit findings could help improve development planning and budget decisions.

He stressed that projects showing repeated failures and poor performance should be properly audited before additional funds were allocated to them. Audit reports, he said, should help determine whether projects were delivering the expected results and deserved further financial support.

Speaking about national development priorities, the minister said stunting should be treated as a national emergency. He also stressed the need to achieve at least 90 percent literacy, saying that no country had achieved development without first reaching this level of literacy.

Ahsan Iqbal appreciated UNICEF for organising the event and providing an opportunity to discuss ways to strengthen parliamentary oversight and improve accountability in public institutions.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026