Incensed at Secretary Finance for skipping the panel meetings, Chairman Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Khursheed Shah on Tuesday directed to write a letter to the Prime Minister over repeated negligence of senior officials in attending meetings of the top parliamentary watchdog. The PAC met here to discuss and review audit objections of the Ministry of Defence Production of 2016-17 but due to the absence of the Secretary Finance Arif Ahmed Khan and other Finance Ministry senior officials the panel could not take up the issues.
The officials of the Finance Ministry told the PAC that the Secretary Finance and other senior officials were busy in a meeting of the Federal Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister. This earned the ire of Shah who ordered Secretary PAC to write a letter to the Prime Minister about the issue. Responding to the Finance Ministry officials' reply, Chairman PAC said that the parliament was above the cabinet and the officials must take it seriously otherwise the panel will have no option but take stern action against those officials ignoring the PAC meetings.
He said that precious national resources were being spent on parliamentary meetings and the cost of today's meeting will be borne by the Ministry of Finance as a penalty. Audit officials informed the panel that in 2012, a machine for the under construction Army Cancer Hospital was purchased at a cost of US$2.6 million but even after the passage of 5 years, the machine was not handed over to the store.
The panel was seriously annoyed over the revelation of the audit officials and said that nowadays technology was changing on daily basis and here US$2.6 million amount was spent on the purchase of a machine to be used for the treatment of cancer patients but as yet it was not handed over to the relevant authorities. Responding to the audit objection, the officials of the Ministry of Defence Production said that the machine has been purchased but some parts of the machine were not available as a result a delay was caused. They added that the company to which contract was awarded has been blacklisted.
The Secretary Defence Lieutenant General Zamir Ul Hassan Shah could not satisfy the panel as a result, the PAC delayed the discussion on the issue while settling other audit paras related to the Ministry of Defence. During meeting, opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan's marriage also came up. When PTI MNA Shafqat Mehmood requested Chairman PAC to grant him permission to leave the committee meeting, member committee Sardar Ashiq Hussain Gopang remarked: Mehmood must be going to attend the Walima ceremony of Imran Khan so we rather let him go.
Gopang further said that Mehmood was going to attend PTI chairman's Walima but didn't bother to invite other panel members. To this, Khursheed Shah quipped whether Imran Khan invited anybody else or not.
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