ISLAMABAD: The chairman of the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Friday restrained the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from proceeding against suspects in a probe regarding billions of rupees of irregularities in evacuee properties, which is being conducted on the orders of the Supreme Court.

The unprecedented action came during a specially-called meeting of the PAC to discuss an as-yet unfinished audit report, which was not even laid before members when the chairman passed directions to the FIA at the request of a senior official from the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

In March last year, the Supreme Court had ordered FIA to retrieve evacuee properties and act against land grabbers and their accomplices. The apex court had also directed the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) to conduct a forensic audit of the properties, going all the way back to 1947.

The AGP has so far audited around half of the 60,000 evacuee properties, while FIA has registered 40 cases against land grabbers and officials of the Evacuee Trust Properties Board (ETPB). The auditor has been submitting interim reports to the apex court.

Rana Tanveer asks FIA not to proceed against ETPB officials until audit is complete; members question meeting held before report’s completion

As per the interim report submitted to the Supreme Court, the AGP had pointed out 318 irregularities of Rs54.61 billion against 67,399 acres of agricultural land, which included non-authentic records maintained by ETPB headquarters, illegal occupation, sale/transfer, sub-letting and non-recovery of lease money etc.

The report also said that 8,266 acres of evacuee trust land with an estimated value of Rs26.4 billion has not been reported.

The audit pointed out that mismanagement in development caused Rs2.4 billion loss to exchequer.

‘Extraordinary’ meeting

PAC Chairman Rana Tanveer Hussain scheduled a meeting to deliberate upon the ETPB issue even though the audit has yet to be completed.

According to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, there is a procedure for placing matters before the PAC. In most cases, the AGP submits its report to the president, who then refers it to parliament, which is then forwarded to the PAC for proper scrutiny.

Initially, no PAC meeting was scheduled. However, a circular was issued by the PAC Secretariat on Jan 28 for discussion of audit paras that were yet to be finalised.

Since there were no documents laid before the body, some questioned the need to convene a “premature” meeting.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Senator Dr Shahzad Waseem asked how members could be expected to put questions to the officials without examining the audit report.

AGP Mohammad Ajmal Gondal was of the view that the audit report could only be presented to the PAC in accordance with the rules.

Director General Audit Tariq Mehmood Koreja told committee that the apex court had constituted a one-man commission consisting of Dr Shuaib Suddle, adding that the audit submits its progress report to the apex court through him. He told the PAC that it was court that ordered FIA to proceed against those who were behind the encroachment upon evacuee properties.

He said that auditors had pointed out 776 serious irregularities during the forensic audit conducted so far.

Mr Koreja said that auditors had examined the records of around 30,000 properties so far and estimated that it would take around two more months to complete the forensic audit of all 60,000 properties.

However, Religious Affairs Secretary Sardar Aijaz Ahmed Khan told the committee that following the Supreme Court’s order, the FIA was conducting raids and arresting ETPB officials, who had filed a civil miscellaneous application (CMA) before the Supreme Court against alleged FIA harassment, which is yet to be taken up.

At this point, an ETPB official suggested the chairman issue directions to the FIA to stop proceeding against board officials until the audit is completed, claiming that the PAC could refer the matter to the FIA or National Accountability Bureau (NAB) once the audit was finished.

Seemingly convinced by the proposal, PAC chairman Rana Tanveer Hussain asked FIA officials not to act against ETPB officials.

This was opposed by PTI MNA Munaza Hussan, who participated in the meeting via video link. She asked how the PAC could stop an inquiry initiated on the orders of the Supreme Court.

But the chairman told her that since a CMA had already been filed and FIA had agreed to wait for an order on the application, it was appropriate for the PAC to pass such directions.

Subsequently, he directed the FIA to wait until the forensic audit concluded and ordered audit officials to submit their report in two months.

Suo motu powers

After the meeting, when Dawn asked the PAC chairman how he could convene a meeting on a matter when the audit report had not been laid before parliament, Rana Tanveer Hussain said that he called the meeting because someone had filed an application with the PAC Secretariat, opining that the PAC chairman could exercise suo motu powers to entertain such applications.

However, a senior audit official thinks otherwise. He told Dawn the auditor could not share any details related to ongoing audits, and that the committee could only examine the final report referred to it by the president through parliament.

This is not the first time Rana Tanveer Hussain has tried to exercise suo motu powers.

In early 2021, the energy ministry had opposed the PAC’s suo motu notice of purported Rs122bn losses on the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Subsequently, the NA speaker also had to step in and prevented the PAC from examining a Rs118 billion Pakistan Post contract in Sept of the same year.

In 2016, the then-law secretary had appeared before the committee to explain why it could not probe the Panamagate affair. The official had cited the relevant provision of the rules, which reads: “The committee shall examine the accounts showing the appropriation of sums granted by the assembly for the expenditure of the government, the annual finance accounts of the government, the report of the auditor general of Pakistan and such other matters as the minister for finance may refer to it.”

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2022