ISLAMABAD, May 12: The Public Accounts Committee on Friday discussed whether to allow journalists to cover its proceedings. Endorsing views of a retired military bureaucrat and the joint secretary of the PAC, Sardar Aashiq Hussain Kopang, a ruling party member said: “The PAC should hold in-camera meetings. We must not allow journalists in our meetings or report our discussions and decisions. Why do you allow them to enter (the committee room)? Some newspapers have even published our agenda in advance, creating problems for us.”

Mr Kopang said journalists should not be provided agenda documents on which Qamar Zaman Kaira of the PPP said media persons could obtain documents from their sources even if they were not allowed to attend the PAC meetings.

“We must discuss the issue internally and also our own powers and jurisdiction,” said PAC chairman Malik Allahyar. Other committee members, including Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri of the MMA and Rai Mansab Ali Khan of the ruling PML also endorsed the chairman’s views.

The committee members’ attitudes have dramatically changed after the PAC proceedings about sugar cartel and payment of Rs35.6 billion in pension to armed forces’ employees from the national exchequer were reported in the national press.

During the meeting on Friday, some PAC members showed such leniency that they even “appreciated” secretary of the ministry of religious affairs Wakeel Ahmed Khan for not sharing his ministry’s steps for the recovery of Rs5.55million overpayments made for the accommodation of the ministry’s staff four years ago.

Scams of financial misappropriation and nepotism dating back to Nawaz and Benazir governments are likely to be taken up in the next PAC meetings.

Interestingly, some members of the committee belonging to the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) now seem to be eager to ban journalists’ entry to committee proceedings.

Commenting on the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association’s (PSMA) assertion that the PAC had no right to discuss the sugar crisis, Qurban Ali Shah, observed: “The duty-free import of 400,000 tons of raw sugar failed to benefit domestic consumers. Sugar mills are concealing records of over 300,000 tons of sugar production to avoid paying sales tax. The people of Pakistan are being fleeced and no question is being asked as the sugar cartel is pocketing billions of rupees. And on top of that they say that the PAC cannot even discuss their actions”.

The PAC chairman asserted that the committee had powers to discuss, investigate and take actions against the sugar cartel because it was a public issue and it involved taxpayers’ money.

He said that the Punjab government had made efforts to publish a clarification in newspapers denying its involvement in the sugar crisis. He said the committee in its last meeting had not named any specific provincial government or its involvement in the crisis, but it had pointed out that the ban on construction of new sugar mills had been flouted in Punjab.