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| November 12, 2005 | Saturday | Shawwal 9, 1426 |
Questions referred to Senate body: Rs2bn loan waiver, PHDF audit
ISLAMABAD, Nov 11: The government on Friday came under fire in the Senate for writing off Rs2 billion loans extended to influential people by the National Bank of Pakistan and keeping the Pakistan Human Development Fund (PHDF) out of the auditor-general’s preview.
As the treasury benches failed to defend both the cases of glaring misuse of resources and power, the house unanimously decided to refer them to the house committee on finance to discuss and decide.
The Senate witnessed uproar by the opposition over the two questions raised by People’s Party Parliamentarians Senator Farhatullah Babar during question hour as the house began its proceedings.
In response to his question, the ministry of finance gave the names of seven industrial and business concerns against which Rs2283.945 million loans were written off or waived in 2,005.
These include Quality Steel Works (Rs979.933 million) Kunzan Textile Mills (Rs118.318 million) Al-Qadir Textile Mills (Rs52.939 million) Reshi Textile (Rs86 million) Bela Ghee, owned by Jam Yousuf and others (Rs38.292 million) Kohinoor Looms (Rs945.407 million) and Bashir Cotton (Rs63 million).
It all started when Mr Babar questioned as to what legal action the government had taken against Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Yousuf of who had got Rs38.292 loan written off.
He said that under the law, anyone getting a loan of Rs2 million written off stood disqualified to become a member of parliament.
Mr Babar demanded surrender of the written off amount in favour of earthquake victims.
The minister of state for environment who was representing the minister of state for finance said the loans worth Rs563 million were written off under criteria set by the SBP and thus could not be questioned.
His argument was not heard by the opposition which insisted that the matter be referred to the house committee.
Ahmed Ali of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement said he knew a party, M/s Bashir Cotton, who had not only got their huge loans written off but had also received interest on the amount.
Asfandyar Wali of the Awami National Party supported the idea of referring the matter to the house committee and also pleaded the case of quake victims for writing off agricultural loans against them.
Minister of Sate Malik Amin Aslam assured the house that a proposal to this affect was under consideration of the government.
On second question whether PHDF accounts were audited by the auditor-general or not, and the answer that it was not audited by the AG but by a private audit firm, the house decided to refer the issue to the house committee.
Law Minister Wasi Zafar while allowing referral of the question to the house committee said that a number of such companies with huge government funds waited for a decision on the issue.
Nisar A. Memon tried to defend the PHDF by saying that its audit reports were available on a website.
Abdullah Riarr of the PPP asked why two former prime ministers and the incumbent premier on the board of the PHDF had not deposited their money in the fund.
Prof Khurshid Ahmed while supporting the idea of referring the matter to house committee said rules on accountability clearly provided that any amount released from exchequer would be auditable by the AG.
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