Haraj refuses to reveal names in Senate: NAB cases against ministers
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, July 7: The opposition in the Senate on Wednesday dealt a blow to the government's claims of transparency when the minister of state for law and parliamentary affairs
refused to reveal the names of sitting ministers against whom cases were pending with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The minister for law and parliamentary affairs, Raza Hayat Hiraj, expressed his inability to place the information about ministers alleged to be under investigation by NAB despite persistent questioning by the opposition led by Senator Enver Baig.
At one stage, Mr Hiraj tried to seek rescue from the Senate deputy chairman, Commander (retd) Khalilur Rehman, by requesting him to stop the opposition from pressing on the issue.
Playing the referee, the deputy chairman at one stage was forced to ask Mr Hiraj to sit down as he tried to defend the alleged corruption of his cabinet colleagues while the opposition continued to ask or the names to be brought on record in the Senate.
Senator Baig took a political dig at the "patriotic ministers" and said NAB cases were a tool to force a change of political loyalties. With the "accountability" fixed in the target sight of the opposition, MMA Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmad questioned the grant of foreign assistance amounting to $270,000 to NAB by Asian Development Bank and the British government through its Department of International Development (DFID).
He demanded explanation for appointment of foreigners in NAB at highly lucrative packages for NAB's restructuring. In response to another question, the Senate was also informed that NAB spent Rs1.126 billion on its activities but failed to establish 327 alleged cases of corruption since its inception due to lack of evidence.
Information placed before the Senate in response to another question showed that Wapda paid a sum of Rs10 million as reward to the military personnel for detecting the theft of electricity while some 4000 employees of Wapda were dismissed from service on various charges.
Senator Farhatullah Babar questioned the policy of diverting a professional army from defending the borders to check electricity meters. Similarly, the Senate was told that in the Sui Northern Gas Company, 722 employees including meter readers, helpers and assistants lost jobs but were later recruited on temporary basis.
Information placed before the Senate revealed that former chairman Pakistan Cricket Board Lt-Gen Tauqir Zia and 11 other officials used Rs6.4 million only as daily allowance during their foreign trips in the last few years.
Only former PCB chairmen, Abdul Hafeez Kardar and Dr Zafar Altaf, are two exceptions in the long list of the chairmen of the Board, who did not claim any daily allowance during their stint as chairmen of the Pakistan Cricket Board.
