ISLAMABAD, March 19: The Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly has directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue immediate instructions to Pakistani missions abroad to stay away from all types of fundraising.
The committee issued the directives on Monday after the audit department informed it that no records could be found of donations and funds collected for the “Quaid project” through different Pakistani missions in the United Kingdom.
It was a private project of Prof Akbar S. Ahmad who wrote a screenplay, a critically acclaimed biopic that chronicled the life of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The film, featuring legendary Hollywood actor Christopher Lee, was released in 1998.
The audit department said though the project was private initially, funds for it were raised through Pakistani missions.
An officer of the Pakistani consulate in Glasgow, Scotland, Rab Nawaz Khan, had collected contributions and donations of Rs3.109 million from the Pakistani community for the project in July 1994 and handed over the money to Mr Ahmad – who also later remained the High Commissioner of Pakistan in London from November 1999 to June 2000.
The audit department is of the view that all over the UK, funds were raised for the project but records of such money could not be found in accounts of the Pakistani High Commission and its consulates.
Some officials of the missions were involved in fund raising in personal capacity. A number of PAC members observed that it was unfortunate that there were no records of donations for a project related to the father of the nation.
“These missions even now collect thousands of pounds and dollars for arranging Meena bazaars and other festivals and their records could not be found in the Community Welfare Fund account,” Auditor-General of Pakistan Younis Khan observed.
