ISLAMABAD - The pending court cases worth Rs5 trillion have seemingly failed to attract the attention of PAC’s special invitees, who are still finding no time to attend an exclusive meeting of the committee on the issue.
A special meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the issue has so far thrice postponed, as ‘special invitees’ are still not available to discuss the important matter.
Despite tall claims to immediately resolve the longstanding issue of public money due to stay orders and other matters, the special PAC meeting was scheduled on May 11 but the huddle could not take place and the matter still hangs in the balance.
The PAC a couple of months before had reached a consensus, after reviewing plethora of audit objections of different ministries that a big amount was stuck owing to pending cases in different courts.
PAC Chairman Syed Khursheed Shah, after thorough deliberation with PAC members from Senate and National Assembly, had decided to summon a meeting on May 11 to resolve the issue with the consultation of special guests.
The special guest list members, including Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani, Opposition Leader in Senate Aitzaz Ahsan, Federal Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid and Attorney General had to be invited to share their suggestions on the issue.
Parliamentary sources said that due to non-availability of all special guests this important meeting could not be held after passing three months. “The meeting thrice postponed due to non-availability of these dignitaries on a special matter,” they said.
Talking to this scribe about the special meeting, some of PAC members had also not pinned hope on resolution of the matter easily by ‘just’ inviting the special members. However, they were willing to deliberate on this important matter in a special meeting, which has still not been scheduled.
The main 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 the different courts.
Chairman PAC Syed Khursheed Shah, in a PAC meeting last year (2016), had once expressed frustration over parliament’s helplessness in recovering the public money stuck due to corruption and irregularities in various government departments. He had termed the PAC as toothless body to resolve important matters. The members of parliamentary accountability body had taken this initiative with a new hope to resolve the issue of pending cases but still the legal brains and other dignitaries could not spare time due to their engagements.
The members of PAC had also repeatedly expressed reservation over hiring of junior lawyers to deal with the important cases, adding the situation could not be changed if experience and senior lawyers were not hired for dealing with these matters.