ISLAMABAD - A sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Thursday strongly criticised unnecessary delay in the present litigation system and emphasised the need for introducing a new law to speed up government litigations and reduce the losses of national exchequer.
Chairman Sub-committee of PAC Rana Afzal gave these remarks while chairing the meeting held in the Parliament House here on Thursday.
The committee was discussing the case of an advance loan of Rs 2.4 million given by Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to a private company to establish a petrol pump in Karachi. However, the company later finished its project in 2009 after twenty years but didn’t repay the loan. The matter was sent to the court but after five years the PSO lost the case in trial court.
The committee showed its serious reservations and ordered the officials of PSO to remove its whole legal team and appoint new ones. The committee ordered to produce all the concerned officials before the committee who approved the loan and the legal officers who prosecuted the case.
The audit officials shocked the committee by disclosing that PSO has already given the commercial loans of Rs 1.508 billion without taking any guarantees. The committee showed its deep anger on the matter.
The officials told the committee that the matter was now with the National Accountability Bureau and PSO was waiting for decision on it.
The members of committee also showed their anger on the issue of hiring a new office in Islamabad by PSO while the own building of PSO exists in Islamabad. The committee ordered to produce in the next meeting the responsible persons who had given the three-year advance money to the owner of the new building.