ISLAMABAD, Oct 16: Irregular appointments, out of turn promotions and tampering of official records in the National Engineering Services of Pakistan (Nespak) came under scrutiny of a special committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday.

Chaired by Yasmin Rehman of the PPP, the committee also questioned appointment of President/MD Nespak Asad Ali Khan who is not an engineer.

The committee argued that the required qualification to fill the position was to be an engineer registered with the Pakistan Engineer Council (PEC). “Khan by profession is an architect and thus doesn’t qualify for the position,” the committee observed.

Referring to various government rules, Ayaz Sadiq of the PMLN said it was an established fact now that Khan’s appointment to the position was irregular and needed clarification at highest level.

Referring to a letter, Sadiq said that the PEC had also questioned the appointment.

In response, Khan continued with his defence, saying that his appointment was duly approved by former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani after fulfilling required codal formalities.

“The appointment of Adnan Khawaja as OGDCL chairman was also made by the prime minister but once it was proven wrong, the government had to cancel his contract. It doesn’t matter who appointed whom, the committee only wants to know whether or not rules have been followed in the process,” retorted Sadiq.

Joint Secretary Ministry of Water and Power Shabbir Ahmad concurred with the objections raised by the PAC over the appointment.

Ahmad was representing the ministry of water and power, whose secretary chairs Nespak’s Board of Governors (BoG) meeting. He said there were many unanswered questions over the appointment of MD Nespak which needed clarifications.

Noor Alam Khan of the PPP exchanged hot words with MD Nespak when the latter expressed his inability to share annual expenditures of the organisation.

“How can you effectively run an organisation if you don’t know its expenditures,” remarked Alam.

When the two sides continued to differ, the committee decided to send the issue of Khan’s posting to the law ministry for legal advice and to the establishment division for whether laid down criterion had been followed. To have an independent opinion, the committee also invited Supreme Court Bar Association president Yasin Azad in its next meeting.

“Nespak is a premier consultancy organisation working under the government umbrella and it is highly important for the PAC to see whether an individual who is heading it fulfills required criteria,” remarked Yasmin Rehman.

“We are not against any person, but only talking about government rules for which we are sitting here,” added Rehman.

The committee also questioned a number of recent new appointments in Nespak and promotions at the level of its vice presidents which its members said were made in complete violation of the rules.

Audit officials present on the occasion also agreed with the out of turn and illegal appointments in Nespak. When questioned where the audit department was in the past when such acts were taking place at Nespak, the audit officials couldn’t respond.

“Had you people been doing your job, these appointments could have been stopped much earlier,” Sadiq said while criticised audit officials.

“I have received reports of tampering of official records in Nespak just to manipulate promotions, but responsible officials have turned their back to these acts,” he added.

Established in 1973 as a private limited company by the government, Nespak is Pakistan’s premier consultancy organisation. Its international stature is well established and it enjoys the reputation of being one of the top engineering consultancy organisations in Asia and Africa and is ranked amongst the world’s top 200 consulting firms.

The objective of its creation was to create a pool of talented engineers, attain self-reliance in engineering consultancy and replace foreign consultants.