ISLAMABAD - Despite tall claims of retrieving Rs5 trillion public money, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) could not move an inch forward to even debate the matter in a couple of months.
PAC decided to resolve the issue of big amount, stuck owing to pending cases in different courts, with the help of special invitees but practical steps were not seen ground in this regard.
PAC Chairman Syed Khursheed Shah had planned to summon a meeting on this matter on May 11 but it had thrice been postponed due to different reasons.
When contacted, PAC member Sheikh Rashid said that they would ask the chairman to take steps to resolve this important matter.
“I will take up this matter in the upcoming PAC meeting, as it is a serious matter,” he said.
Other members, desiring not to be named, said the matter will be brought to the notice of chairman in the upcoming meeting.
The disqualification of PM Nawaz Sharif overshadowed all other parliamentary matters, including discussion on this matter, it was argued.
Another PAC member said that it would be discussed in upcoming main PAC meeting to call a special meeting on it. The unavailability of special members was also the reason for not holding this meeting.
Parliamentary sources said that the longstanding issue of public money due to stay orders might be summoned next month in September but it would be a subject to availability of the bigwigs.
This special meeting, in planning chart, is also not in the upcoming schedule even yet after passing around four months.
Syed Khursheed Shah with the consultation of PAC members had decided to include National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani, Opposition Leader in Senate Aitezaz Ahsan, Federal Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid and Attorney General to be part of the committee.
The PAC members were optimistic to resolve this matter by inviting these special guests but all of them could not be available on the tentative programme thus it was postponed thrice. Chairman PAC was much hopeful to reach on any consensus on this matter.
“All will prove helpful, even Aitezaz Ahsan might take some of the cases,” Khursheed Shah remarked, when the idea was floated to call a special meeting on it.
The purpose of inviting these guests was to make a strategy in PAC to vacate stay orders and other related matters on cases worth Rs5 trillion pending in different courts.
The PAC chairman had once expressed frustration over parliament’s helplessness in recovering the public money stuck due to corruption and irregularities in various government departments.
