ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman would move a resolution in the National Assembly for the appearance of the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s Registrar in charged appropriate accounts of the last 10 years (2010-11-2020-21) in case he (the registrar) would not come in the next meeting.

The committee chaired by Noor Alam Khan could not examine the audit of the apex court because of the non-appearance of the Supreme Court Registrar in the meeting.

The committee received a letter from the apex court, saying the matter pertaining to the audit was sub-judice.

The chairman committee said three well-known lawyers would be consulted on whether the accounts of the Supreme Court could be audited by the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) as the court’s expenditure was budgeted annually.

The committee also sought the views of AGP Mansoor Usman Awan who explained that all court fees were deposited into the consolidated account of the government; however, the charged federal grants could be examined in the PAC.

The AGP contended that there were no serious audit objections found in 95 audit paras during SC audit, therefore, the committee of the AGP did not print any audit para. The chairman committee urged the AGP to bring all the audit paras in the next meeting for the review of committee members.

The officials of the AGP further apprised the committee that the State Bank of Pakistan was not responding to some 16 audit observations on the dam fund account established by former chief justice SC Saqib Nisar.

Giving reference to a decision taken by former justice Saqib Nisar at the time of the establishment of the dam fund, the audit official said the central bank was giving reference of a judgement on the subject of the audit passed at that time. The chairman committee sought the opinion of the attorney general of Pakistan.

The committee also asked the AGP to provide a complete list of salaries, perks and privileges and other facilities of the SC’s judges, the president of Pakistan, the prime minister, federal ministers, parliamentarians, and federal secretaries.

Earlier, the AGP official submitted gross salaries of the high-level public office holders. President’s gross salary per month is Rs896,550; Prime Minister draws Rs215,740; federal ministers Rs328,125; parliamentarians Rs188,000, Chief Justice Supreme Court Rs1.57 million, the judges of Supreme Court Rs1.47 million and the federal secretaries’ gross salary is Rs591,475.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023