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LAHORE, April 7: The Public Accounts Committee of the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday directed the local bodies department to recover over Rs120 million from 465 MPAs who had got community centres constructed on private land.
The MPAs concerned should be given six months for payment of dues and the cases should then be referred to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the committee, headed by Azeem Ahmad Ghumman, observed.
It asked the department for a list of the MPAs involved in misappropriation of funds along with details covering all aspects of the scam in the next meeting. The scheme for constructing community centres on state land was initiated in the Punjab in 1988, when Mian Nawaz Sharif was the chief minister.
Under it, the rural people were to be provided vocational training facilities as well as space for arranging functions, etc. Misappropriation of funds through construction of these centres on land owned by MPAs -- including some ministers -- was reported, especially during the rule of Mian Manzoor Wattoo and Sardar Arif Nakai.
Shahbaz Sharif banned the construction of more community centres as the MPAs were using them as outhouses and in some cases personal residence. These dues were recovered from 431 MPAs, while another 465 had yet to pay around Rs120 million. A sum of Rs260 million was allocated to the MPAs for building 1,252 community centres during various tenures.
Taking up various audit paras regarding work on roads at a cost of Rs185 million, the committee observed that had the amount allocated for earthwork since creation of the country been used properly, sea level of the country would have gone up by 12 feet.
PRIVILEGES COMMITTEE: The Punjab Assembly privileges committee expressed its dismay over the language used by the Jhang district police officer in a letter informing the body about unavailability of a sub-inspector in a breach-of-privilege case.
Telling the committee that Sub-Inspector Rustam Ali could not attend the meeting due to his local engagements during governor's April 7 visit to Jhang, DPO Khadim Husain suggested that "the committee should postpone its April 7 meeting and inform him well in time about the next date of hearing."
MPA Ghulam Ahmad Khan Gadhi from Jhang had filed a breach-of-privilege motion against Rustam. Interestingly, the MPA also did not turn up before the committee on Wednesday citing the same reason.
The committee, headed by Malik Nazar Fareed Khokhar, directed the provincial police chief to take note of the behaviour of his subordinates as the sub-inspector was required to reply to its summons and not the DPO.
