PHC restrains firm from conducting performance audit of AWKU

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday restrained a private firm from conducting performance audit of the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan on the directives of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government till the next order of the court.
A division bench comprising Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Muhammad Younas Thahim stopped the Deloitte Chartered Accountant, Islamabad, a private firm from conducting performance audit of the university till September 3.
The bench also issued a notice to the provincial government through chief secretary and secretary Higher Education Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, directing it to submit replies in the case.
The court passed the orders in a writ petition by Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan which it had filed against the audit of the university.
Counsels for the university, including Rahmanullah Shah and Ibrahim Shah, submitted before the bench that the performance audit of the university is being carried out by the Higher Education Commission, Islamabad each year and evaluations are being published online on the website of the commission for general public throughout the world.
They submitted that since establishment of the university, regular audit is being carried out by the relevant authorities.
The lawyers pointed out that audit of the university had been carried out under Section 38 of the university Act 2012, which provides a procedure for the audit and accounts.
The university claimed in the petition that the provincial government proposed amendment to the act in 2012 and resultantly, the amendments were made to Section 38 of the act in early May 2015, whereby two provisions were added after sub-section 6 of Section 38 of the act.
It said that after the amendments, the secretary Higher Education through a notification issued on May 29, 2015 asked the university for performance audit through Deloitte Chartered Accountant, instead of regular audit of the university.