LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Shahid Waheed on Wednesday gave last chance to the provincial government for filing reply till May 9 on a petition questioning non-presentation of audit reports of district governments of the province before Public Accounts Committee.
The judge had sought explanation from the government. Earlier, the judge had directed the Punjab advocate general (AG) to explain submission of a four-year old audit report signed by then Punjab governor Sardar Latif Khan Khosa in the latest case questioning non-presentation of audit reports of district governments of the province before Public Accounts Committee.
Petitioner’s counsel Sheraz Zaka pointed out that the report submitted by the government carried signature of former governor instead of the incumbent Governor Rafiq Rajwana.
The counsel had submitted that audit reports of district governments of Punjab had never been presented to the PAC nor laid before the house. He submitted that the auditor general of Pakistan wrote a letter to the governor on September 7, 2012, and reminded him to fulfill his statutory obligations by placing audit reports of district governments before the committee of the Punjab Assembly as well as before the house.
He said that this letter was also forwarded to the chief minister but it was not implemented, adding that the office of the auditor general also wrote to the finance secretary on June 4, 2014, to present the audit reports on the accounts of the district governments for the financial years 2001-02 to 2012-13 before the PAC, but all in vain.
He said that the PAC was told in a meeting on September 15, 2015 that the audit reports had been received from the governor and submitted to the chief minister but the reports had not been placed before the committee so far. He asserted that according to section 108 of Punjab Local Government Act, 2013, the audit reports of the auditor general shall be considered by the PAC.
He submitted that aid the PAC was the main instrument of parliamentary system and its strengthening was vital to ensure accountability of public funds and good governance, which would eventually eliminate corruption from the public sector. He requested the court to direct the respondents to place audit reports of the district governments from 2001-02 to 2014-15 before the PAC as well as Punjab Assembly.