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WEEKLY
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| FO comes under scanner at PAC meeting today |
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Friday, March 12, 2010
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Ministry officials who will appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) here on Friday have claimed in official documents that Benazir Bhutto’s assassination saved Rs150 million, which would have been spent by the then President Pervez Musharraf on his foreign trips but he had to cancel those trips after she was killed.
But one thing is missing from the auditor general’s report: how General Pervez Musharraf spent Rs1.4 billion on his 80 foreign trips during two years (2005-2007). His foreign trip to USA to launch his book “In the Line of Fire” in 2006 cost Rs270 million alone. But, ironically, the AGP report is silent over the spending of such a heavy amount by the then president on the publicity of his autobiography in the US. But the assassination of Benazir Bhutto has been cited as reason for non-utilisation of these millions.
The PAC is meeting here on Friday with Ch Nisar Ali Khan in the chair to take up audit reports of foreign ministry for 2007-2008. It has also been disclosed that a sum of Rs60.7 million was also paid in September 2007 to an unknown extra lobbyist hired to project Pakistan. But, the FO has not mentioned the name or the background of the lobbyist who was given million of rupees as special grant and on whose orders. Interestingly, the non-utilisation of Rs16 million has been justified on account of military operation against militants of Lal Masjid.
Apart from Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, the bombing in the rally of Benazir Bhutto on October 18, 2007 in which 150 workers had died has also been cited to justify the saving of Rs16 million meant for civil works.
Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir has been directed to appear before the committee and explain all these objections against his ministry and officials. This is the only ministry, which has claimed that millions were saved because of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination otherwise some ministries and departments like Railways, National Highway Authority etc, had claimed soon after her assassination that they had suffered heavy losses after violence broke out in Sindh and other parts of the country following her assassination on December 27, 2007.
A foreign ministry official confirmed that the replies of the audit objections were sent to the PAC and these were the valid reasons behind savings these millions now given to the PAC members.
The PAC would also take up the inquiry report into the sale of Pakistani building in Tokyo by the Foreign Office authorities along with the amounts, which were not surrendered on time to the ministry of finance and remained unutilised with the ministry of foreign affairs. The inquiry report to be tabled before the PAC has given a clean chit to the foreign ministry officials, as the inquiry was conducted by its own officials.
Meanwhile, according to available official documents to be laid down before the PAC members, an amount of Rs90 million in the name of operating expenses was given to the ministry of foreign affairs. This money was to be given to the foreign missions to meet the expenses of President Musharraf’s visit to those foreign countries in 2007-2008. But, at the end of the financial year, the ministry of foreign affairs returned this money to the finance ministry, saying it could not use these millions.
The AGP pointed out that the ministry of foreign affairs had violated the rules. Under the rules, if the money was not spent, the concerned department is supposed to return the amount on time so it could be diverted to some other department.
Now, the FO has disclosed in its official papers that actually this saving was mainly due to the internal political situation of the country during 2007-2008. The ministry said because of the volatile situation, Pervez Musharraf could not go abroad as scheduled earlier. It said appointment of caretaker set-up, the judicial crisis, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the 2008 elections prevented Musharraf from going abroad.
Likewise, while justifying saving of Rs42 million under the same head, the ministry of foreign affairs said these millions were meant for the foreign trips of the prime minister. But, again because of the fast changing situation at home, particularly the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the PM could not go abroad as per earlier schedule.
Meanwhile, the official papers showed that massive amounts were spent on foreign trips of Pakistani rulers in 2007-2008. So much so that the foreign ministry was given a supplementary grant of Rs15 million to meet the expenses of delegation, which had gone abroad. The ministry, however, did not tell the PAC who was heading this delegation and who were its members for whom Rs15 million were released on an emergency basis. It gave just one clue that the money was released for this VIP after a message was received from the Pakistani mission that the amount was not enough to meet the expenditures so Rs15 million were sent on an emergency basis.
A supplementary grant of Rs2.8 million was also given to meet the shortfall in the heads of medical charges and foreign allowance (Washington: Rs26 million supplementary grant was given on account of travel allowance to the ministry of foreign affairs, which were paid to its staff etc).
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ISSN 1563-9479 
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