The PAC meeting was chaired by its chairman Nadeem Afzal Gondal, which discussed the accounts of FWO, DHA and Supreme Court of Pakistan. Auditor General of Pakistan Buland Akhtar Rana criticised FWO, DHA and Nadra for not co-operating with the Auditors. He recalled that Nadra allowed AGP to conduct audit conditionally. The administration of Nadra allowed limited access of the auditors to the accounts of government's grants. However, they denied access to receipts generated by Nadra itself.
He further said that the FWO had informed the Director General, Defence Audit that they would not let the auditors to conduct audit until GHQ permits them. He added that Ministry of Defence was not dealing the affairs of FWO. DG Defence Audit, however, said in a recent development, FWO had assured them to provide complete accounts, as GHQ permitted access to auditors at various formations.
Defending the DHA, Additional Secretary Ministry of Defence Arshad Qadus said that the housing society had a self-accounted and self sustained audit system like other housing societies and Ministry of Defence was not dealing with the affairs of DHA. After the promulgation of 18 Constitutional Amendment, AGP said every government department was accountable before AGP and army welfare organisations were not exempted. He further recalled that DHA was established through a notification issued by President of Pakistan.
Chairman PAC directed to take up the matter in a body comprising representatives of PAC, DHA, Ministry of Law and AGP for resolving the matter within 10 days. The PAC showed resentment over SC Registrar's decision not to appear before the committee. In his ruling, chairman said in an in-camera session on Tuesday t the committee would device its future line of action against the absence of Registrar SC. He termed it not only breach of parliament's privilege but also breach of public mandate given to the parliament. He advised the Registrar to appear before the committee till Tuesday. "It is not a matter of ego but the issue relates to supremacy of constitution and people," he said.
The Chairman said that all political parties, legal experts, Ministry of law agree that Registrar should appear before the committee as per constitution. Former Chairman PAC, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, was the first who had called Registrar through a letter. "I deliberately lingered on the case in the PAC as the case of the former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani was in the court of law and I did not want that the people may carve any theory out of it," he maintained.
Earlier, Yasmeen Rehman questioned as to why registrar SC appeared in PAC before 2004 for answering the audit objections. "We are not interested in personal attacks but it is a legal obligation on every government departments to appear before the PAC even for charged expenditure," she explained, adding that the role of Speaker National Assembly was undermined by such an action.
Sardar Ayaz suggested that matter should be referred to Speaker National Assembly as they did not wish clash between two institutions. A letter should be written to Speaker to bring the matter in the House. Noor Alam Khan said that everyone must respect the Constitution. "If parliament respects the court then the court should also give respect to the parliament," he added.