The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday directed the Religious Affairs Ministry to recover Rs 567 million it spent on Haj expenditures of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family from Pilgrims Welfare Fund (PWF) in 1997. Religious Affairs Ministry Secretary Wakil Ahmed Khan, however, informed the meeting the former premier had submitted the amount spent on the Haj expenditures, but admitted the money was not transferred to the same fund.
"The ministry must recover the amount spent on the Haj expenditures and other kinds of tours of various government officials, including the former premier," PAC Chairman Malik Allah Yar Khan ruled winding up an audit para.
Allah Yar, otherwise a cool and calm customer and often accused by its own committee members of bailing out ministries, suddenly charged up when a para of the former premier's corruption came under consideration.
The PAC also directed the ministry to recover Rs 4.051 million spent on the tours of different other public office holders from the fund during 1994 and 2001 period.
The meeting directed the ministry to impose penalty on various secretaries who had been releasing money from the fund for other then pilgrims' welfare purposes during the prescribed period.
According to the report, Accountant General (AG) Office submitted to the PAC, former premier Nawaz and his family performed Haj in 1997 and the ministry paid the expenditures out of the Pilgrims Welfare Fund (PWF).
The ministry established PWF to provide facilities to pilgrims. The main source of the fund was deduction of Rs 450 from each Haj application.
The PAC observed that the PWF was supposed to be spent on the welfare of pilgrims exclusively and its utilisation for any other purpose was unlawful and unethical.
Later, the meeting also examined various other audit objections in the audit report of Religious Affairs Ministry. The PAC ordered recovery in some cases and regularised many others, subjected to verification of both AG Office and the Finance Ministry.
Earlier, Narcotics Control Division Secretary Ismail Hussain Niazi made a sensational disclosure that there had been a resurgence of poppy cultivation in parts of NWFP and Balochistan during the last two years.
He informed the meeting that some two years back Pakistan was declared as a poppy-free country, but the cultivation resumed due to some reasons, which he didn't mention.
Sources told Business Recorder that the reason behind this resurgence was the deployment of over 70,000 militiamen on Pak-Afghan border to stop alleged infiltration of al Qaeda fugitives in the country.
These paramilitary troops were earlier deployed in the tribal agencies of NWFP to stop poppy cultivation. The PAC would resume its meeting on Thursday to review paras of the Industries Ministry.