June 30, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 14, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 29: The Pakistan People’s Party has demanded thorough audit of the accounts of National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) and the institution of reference against corrupt.

The first audit of the NCHD made public Wednesday exposed misuse of the Pakistan Human Development Fund (PHDF) to the tune of nearly Rs1.3 billion and missing of Rs338 million from the bank accounts of the NCHD and PHDF. “The revelations made in the special audit report on the accounts of the Commission and the Development Fund of unauthorized utilization of nearly Rs1.3 billion is a serious indictment of the Commission that calls for probe and action,” said Senator Enver Baig of the PPP in a statement on Friday.

Senator Enver Baig said that the NCHD has thus far refused to submit itself to audit on different pretexts but its mandarins have finally been caught with what looks like their hands in the till.

He demanded to know as to where the over Rs22 million received by the Commission from Telethon was parked, as it was not shown in the accounts statements.

Senator Enver Baig said that the corruption involving big fish in the regime was condoned sometime behind the pretext of “honest mistake made in good faith” and sometime behind the pretext that the agency involved was a private sector enterprise and beyond the purview of government audit.

He said that sometime back when the affairs of the NCHD came up for discussion on the floor of the Senate it transpired that it had a lot to explain but the regime protected it from scrutiny using different pretexts.

Senator Enver Baig demanded that the matter of embezzlement in the NCHD must be referred to NAB and an investigation held into it and the embezzlers brought to book.

The PPP leader said that if the regime failed to file a reference against the NCHD bosses he would place the matter before the Party for filing a reference against it.