ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah on Monday expressed frustration over parliament’s helplessness in recovering the public money stuck due to corruption and irregularities in various government departments.

Mr Shah, the chairperson of the Public Accounts Com­mittee, presented three reports and called for a “drastic restructuring” of the PAC.

Addressing the National Assembly, Mr Shah called for legislation to make the committee “independent”, more effective and useful.

The lower house of parliament went into session on Monday after a two-day recess. The Pakistan Council for Science and Technology Bill 2016 was passed and the Law and Justice Committee presented a report on the controversial Pakistan Com­missions of Inquiry Bill 2016. Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi had to defer two other bills on the agenda after the opposition threatened to point out a lack of quorum.

When Law Minister Zahid Hamid took the floor to present the bills, MNA Syed Naveed Qamar of the Pakistan Peoples Party drew the chair’s attention towards empty treasury benches and asked the government to bring in its members to complete the quorum or defer legislative business.

Mr Shah later presented the PAC reports for financial years 1998-99, 2003-04 and 2007-08 and called for a debate.

“We want changes in the PAC so that it can play an effective role in eliminating corruption,” Mr Shah said, adding that otherwise the committee would remain mere eyewash.

He said of the cases they had dealt with, half of those involved in corruption or irregularities had died whereas 30 per cent of them had retired, making it almost impossible for the committee to take action. “We have many senior and experienced parliamentarians but they have no powers,” he regretted.

Mr Shah said the committee had been informed that over Rs450 billion of public funds were stuck because of litigation in various courts. He was of the view that the PAC was useless if it continued to take up 19- to 20-year-old issues.

He said under his chairmanship, the PAC had managed to recover Rs119 billion in the last three-and-a-half years.

Fata reforms

Winding up the debate on Fata reforms which had been continuing for the last three sessions, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said the people of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) should get an opportunity to elect representatives to the provincial assembly in the upcoming general elections in 2018.

The adviser heads the Fata Reforms Committee which finalised its recommendations in September.

Mr Aziz said the committee members had come to the conclusion that a merger of Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was the best available option, but it could not be done immediately without repatriation of internally-displaced persons and reconstruction of the war-torn area.

“If Fata does not get representation in the provincial assembly in 2018, the matter will be delayed for another five years,” he added.

Mr Aziz called for enhancing allocations for Fata – from Rs20 billion to Rs90 billion – as this could help alleviate poverty and improve infrastructure.

He said work on a local government system in Fata had begun. The Fata committee report, with recommendations from the assembly, would be presented before the federal cabinet in a couple of weeks, he said.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2016