Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Former National Assembly speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza is among seven lawmakers who enjoyed medical treatment abroad on taxpayers’ money.

The government incurred more than Rs 142 million on their treatment, it has been revealed in audit report 2016.

The auditor general of Pakistan said in the report that expenditure on the medical treatment of the lawmakers abroad was illegal. He also called for stern action against all those who misused their position and sanctioned such huge sum of money for the medical treatment.

Fehmida Mirza, Shehnaz Sheikh, Bushra Rehman and Shehzada Mohiuddin were treated in the US and UK and three lawmakers Kishwar Zahra, Abdul Waseem and Murtaza Amin got their treatment in private hospitals.

The report available with Daily Times revealed that Dr Mirza went to the US on official visit and was admitted to Surgery Institute Central Expressway Dallas for plastic surgery and the government paid Rs 2.740 million in this regard.

The auditor general observed that this expenditure is against the government directives issued on February 24, 1997. He also observed that the amount paid to the US hospital through Pakistani Embassy in Washington was illegal and the amount should be taken back from the beneficiaries.

Another MNA Bushra Rehman after getting her cardiac bypass surgery from abroad requested then prime minister for reimbursement of the dues incurred on her treatment. The Health Ministry rejected her request for reimbursement of $30,000 but later then PM Yousaf Raza Gilani had sanctioned $50,000.

Begum Shehnaz Sheikh, a lawmaker elected on reserved quota, was treated abroad and the government paid Rs 2.7 million in this regard.

Mohiuddin, then Standing Committee on Kashmir and GB chairman, was also treated abroad on public funds. The government paid Rs 2.8 million in this regard.

Three lawmakers Murtaza Amin, Abdul Waseem and Kishwar Zahra got their medical treatment and the government paid Rs 1.676 million to private hospitals of Karachi and Lahore for this purpose. The document also revealed that lawmaker Abdul Waseem’s wife was admitted to a private hospital for delivery and the government bore the expenditure.

Daily Times contacted all the lawmakers mentioned in the report but they refused to comment.