ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday scrutinised the irregular payment of Rs1 million from the national exchequer for the personal telephone bills of former federal minister Sher Afgan Niazi.

Social Welfare and Special Education Secretary G.M. Sikandar told the meeting that former prime minister Shaukat Aziz had directed the ministry to pay the amount, therefore, they had left with no other option.

The committee had summoned Naeem Khan, a former secretary of the social welfare ministry for a personal hearing that under what rules, he had ordered the payment of telephone bills of Mr Niazi.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MNA Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan presided over the PAC meeting held at the Parliament House.

The committee was informed that a telephone connection was installed at the ancestral home of Mr Niazi, in addition to the connection provided at his official residence in Islamabad when he was the minister for social welfare and special education during PPP’s second government.

The telephone connection remained in use from October 1993 to November 1996. In November 1997, the social welfare and special education ministry received a telephone bill amounting to Rs585,201 from the Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) for payment. The bill subsequently increased to Rs903,198 after including the arrears in 2003.

Mr Niazi, who is known for his legal expertise, also moved the Lahore High Court against the PTCL to get away with the payment, however, his appeal was dismissed.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Khan said: “This is something beyond my comprehension. If former prime minister justified that Mr Niazi deserved payment of his bills by the government, he should have paid the money from the Zakat fund”.

“We will not condone this,” he stressed.

The PAC summoned ex-secretary Naeem Khan to appear before the committee on February 2 to explain that under what compulsions the ministry paid this amount from its budget. Moreover, the committee has directed the ministry of social welfare and special education not to regularise the said amount.