MUZAFFARABAD, May 31: The AJK government has purchased a number of vehicles during the past two years for the prime minister, ministers and other public office holders, spending more than Rs80 million, an opposition leader claimed on Thursday.

People’s Party Azad Kashmir Information Secretary Khwaja Farooq Ahmed said in a ‘fact sheet’ that Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan had sanctioned Rs9 million for the purchase of another luxurious vehicle for himself “in violation of his own avowals to enforce austerity.”

He said the prime minister had recently purchased a car worth more than Rs1.2 million for his family’s use while last year he purchased a Mercedes car from a foreign mission in Islamabad for Rs7.4 million for his own use although there was a Mercedes car in his fleet.

After coming to power, the prime minister had also withheld for his cavalcade an intercooler vehicle, which was allotted to the senior minister in the previous government, said the PPAJK leader.

He alleged that the government was wasting the taxpayers’ money on luxuries while publicly professing to be worried about the problems of the common man.

During 22 months, he said, the government had purchased 15 five-door jeeps of a Korean company for Rs24.2 million and 24 latest Toyota cars for Rs28.8 million from a Mirpur dealer for the ministers and advisers.

“The quarters concerned need to probe into reports suggesting that kickbacks have been received in the deals,” Mr Ahmed said.

The PPAJK leader claimed that the Legislative Assembly secretariat had purchased vehicles for Rs9.3 million for the speaker and deputy speaker.

A number of projects of public utility could not be initiated or provided funds on the pretext of scant financial resources while there was no let-up in procurement of expensive vehicles, he lamented.

He claimed that during the People’s Party government, the prime minister and his ministers had used the vehicles purchased by their predecessors.