ISLAMABAD - The Public Accounts Committee on Thursday decided to approach Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umer Atta Bandial against the grant of repeated stay orders by the subordinate judiciary.
A meeting of PAC held on Thursday at Parliament House under the chair of Noor Alam Khan to discuss the audit objections related to the Aviation Division.
During the meeting, Chairman PAC questioned about an excess expenditure incurred upon a project than its approved cost. The representative of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) informed the meeting that excess expenditures are incurred on a runway project at Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore.
He said that the concerned project director had issued several orders on the project on his own without taking approval of the competent authority and spent an extra amount of Rs2 billion.
Chairman PAC asked what action has been taken against the said officer so far. The CAA’s representative replied that the authority had removed the project director from his post and initiated an inquiry against him but he had managed to get a favourable decision from the court.
He further said that the court had not only given a restraining order against the authority to proceed against him but also reinstated him in the same position from where he was removed for his wrong doings.
At this point, the PAC after brief discussion unanimously decided to approach the Chief Justice of Pakistan to look into the working of lower judiciary, which according to the committee is creating hindrance in the accountability process.
It is pertinent to mention here that not only the lower judiciary but the Islamabad High Court in recent days has also overturned a couple of PAC’s rulings.
For instance, two days ago, the IHC directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to remove the name of the former Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Azam Khan from its stop list, which was included on the directions of the PAC.
Meanwhile, PAC was also told by the audit officers that their teams visited the office of Registrar Supreme Court of Pakistan to get the record of funds collected as ‘Dam Fund’ for its audit on the directions of the committee but they were denied the access.
Noor Alam Khan directed his staff to send a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan through the Attorney General Office and cite examples of ‘judicial overstepping’ in the communique.
He said we will request the CJP to look into the matter and take corrective measures as we cannot allow the corrupt people to hide themselves behind the court orders.
He said that under the article 170 of the Constitution, the Auditor General Office can get any record for the purpose of audit and it cannot be denied access to it. He directed his staff to include this point in the letter as well.
Earlier, he directed the FIA to complete all pending inquiries regarding Pakistan International Airlines.
