Resuming the hearing of a suo motu notice in the matter, a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry issued notices to Abdul Khaliq, former federal secretary finance after Accountant General Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) Tahir Mehmood alleged that finance secretary and a deputy secretary finance pressurised AGPR officials in March 2013 to release funds as PPP-led coalition government's tenure was nearing completion and Election Commission of Pakistan had imposed a ban on transfer of development funds.
The AGPR official told the bench that they had communicated to the finance ministry that it was a pre-poll rigging and a clear violation of relevant rules to withdraw funds after an ECP ban. Mehmood apprised the court that his predecessor was on a 40-day leave after he received directions to issue funds under PM's special directives, saying he was pressurised to release funds for PWDP-II schemes.
Mehmood urged the court to direct the Auditor General of Pakistan to conduct a special audit of the schemes to ascertain the transparency in utilisation of development funds estimated to Rs 52 billion. Mehmood said his office had asked Pak PWD, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL), Sui Southern Gas Pipelines (SSGPL), PEPCO, Mepco and Wapda to provide details of the money released to them and to what extent that had been spent but so far no response had been made.
During the course of proceedings, legal advisor for SNGPL submitted that the company received Rs 5.8 billion for provision of gas to Gujjar Khan whereas Rs 1.4 billion was spent and the rest of the money was deposited in the assignment account of the federal government.
Director General DG Pak PWD told that his department received Rs 21 billion for 6274 development schemes and so far they had spent Rs 15.5 billion and had completed 3803 schemes with 1744 under process and the rest had not yet been initiated. The hearing was adjourned for two weeks.