Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Bureaucrats sitting in the Foreign office are allegedly not adjusting huge public funds allocated for the promotion of the Kashmir cause. This was revealed during the proceedings of a Public Accounts Committee meeting on Wednesday. A Public Accounts Committee meeting was held at Parliament House presided by Naveed Qamar in the absence of its chairman Syed Khurshid Shah opposition leader in the National Assembly. The meeting was attended by Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Shafqat Mehmood, Shaikh Rohail Asgher, Raja Javed Akhlas , Rashid Godail, Shahida Akhtar Ali and Dr, Azra Pahejjo.

Member PAC Shafqat Mehmood raised objections and questioned the method of expenditure of public funds for promoting the Kashmir cause and sought details of the expenditure but the issue was not further debated because of its sensitive nature. During the meeting of PAC, it transpired that former Foreign Minister Hinna Rabbani Khar and Nawabzada Amadullah Khan are among the others diplomats including Ather Mehmood, Abdul Jalil and Zeshan Haider Rizvi who had allegedly received huge public funds in the names of travelling allowance.

The Public Accounts Committee was informed by the Auditor General of Pakistan that the Pakistan Embassy at Washington DC borrowed Rs90 million loan in 2013-14 from a Pakistani bank for construction of building without taking approval of the Economic Affairs Division.

It is pertinent to mention here that when the loan was taken, the Pakistani ambassador to USA was Shireen Rehman and the Pakistan People’s Party was ruling the country. Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaufhry told the meeting that only $15 million loan was received from the Pakistani bank and only $2.3 million loan remains to be paid.

The Public Accounts Committee strictly forbade Foreign Secretary from taking more loan from the banks as it was not the business of the diplomats to borrow money but the job of Finance Ministry to provide capital to the state functionaries for different projects. During the meeting, the audit objections regarding Ministry of Foreign Affairs were perused in the presence of Foreign Secretary Azaz Chaudhry along with other senior officers of the ministry.

The Public Accounts Committee was irked by the foreign secretary for not introducing SAP a financial system in the ministry and giving enough space to the corrupt mafia for committing financial irregularities on high scales.

Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry ensured the PAC members that a sufficient amount had been retrieved by taking strict line of action from the diplomats who had allegedly misused public money and added that now some delinquents diplomats are complaining to Sartaz Aziz against him but all plundered money would be retrieved and deposited in the national exchequer. Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry told the meeting that only five Pakistani missions abroad have hired the services of competent accounts experts and the remaining 117 missions are maintaining their financial accounts through manual methods.