PAC body looks into illegal purchase of vehicles by Pesco

ISLAMABAD: A stunning revelation was made before the subcommittee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) regarding how a government department violated the law and purchased six non-custom paid, unregistered vehicles from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) during the Musharraf regime.
The department of the auditor general of Pakistan told the subcommittee of the PAC how the Peshawar Electricity Supply Corporation (Pesco) promoted unlawful business by purchasing six unregistered vehicles from the bargain centre of Fata with a cost of Rs2.695 million. The purchase of unregistered vehicles is repugnant to Custom Act 1960 (Para 8 Section 156 Ch. XVII) and these are liable to confiscation.
A meeting of the PAC’s subcommittee was held presided over by its chairman Syed Naveed Qamar in which the audit paras relating to the Ministry of Water and Power for the financial year 2002-03 were presented.
The audit official told the committee that the action of the department came under the definition of unlawful business which could not be expected from the government department. The sub-committee directed secretary of Ministry of Water and Power to hold inquiry on this issue and submit its report in the next meeting of the committee. Member sub-committee of the PAC Abdul Manan remarked that if any politician had purchased an unregistered vehicle, there would be much hue and cry.
Pesco replied that these vehicles were purchased for use in Fata and these non-custom paid vehicles were already in use as the Federal Board of Revenue had exempted the tribal areas as well as Swat and Dir districts so the decision made for these areas was to be applicable to Pesco in that area