ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) administration seems reluctant to allow the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) to conduct its external audit after the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) raised a number of objections during the internal audit of the court in August last year.

Sources in the IHC told Dawn that after the AGPR’s internal audit the AGP office in August 2013 planned external audit of the court and submit a report to the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly.

However, the IHC administration did not allow them because of the summer vacations in the court. After the summer vacations, when the auditors again approached the IHC administration in September, they were again not permitted to examine the record.

In October, when the AGP office again approached the IHC administration, they were advised to wait till further orders as the administration was busy in the project of the Islamabad model jail and other activities.

The AGPR in its report in August pointed out that “not a single appointment (in IHC) has been made on merit and that a number of appointments have been made in relaxation of rules, including absorption of officers and officials (deputationists) in much higher scales than they were holding in their parent departments.”

The report also pointed out that the procedure of advertising the vacancies and filling them through open competition after conducting tests/interviews was “totally ignored in all the appointments,” adding: “It is more alarming that even after advertising the posts of non-gazetted cadres, they were still filled by relaxing the rules and the applicants who had applied against the posts were deprived of their fundamental right to compete for getting the job on merit.”

According to the report, three IHC judges also received house rent despite having official accommodation.

“The IHC administration hired three houses as the judges’ rest houses in 2011-12 and allotted them to the judges. At the same time, the court administration continued paying the house rent allowance (Rs65,000 per month) to the judges.”

It may be noted that after a story related to the objection was published in a section of the press, the judges stopped receiving the house rent but continued staying in the hired houses, sources in the IHC said.

The sources said only the forth judge, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, never received the Rs65,000 per month allowance and also paid to the administration the difference between his entitlement and the rent of his hired house.

A district and sessions judge of the KP Judicial Service, Azim Khan Afridi, who was facing charges of making illegal appointments, when contacted, confirmed that the IHC administration made a number of appointments without observing rules.

He denied his involvement in the appointments.

Mr Afridi remained a judge of the IHC from November 2011 to November 2012 when he was reverted to the KP Judicial Service as a sessions judge after the Judicial Commission of Pakistan did not confirm him.

Mr Afridi claimed that the alleged illegal appointments in the IHC were made at the behest of senior authorities of the IHC and the Supreme Court.

“I never recruited even a single relative in the IHC but there are brothers and nephews of other judges who have been inducted in violation of merit and prescribed procedure.”

He added: “They knew that they could not justify these appointments; therefore, they made me a scapegoat to save their skins.”

He claimed that the external audit and hearing in the PAC would bring truth to the open.

When contacted, Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue Tahir Mehmood said the external audit would be conducted by the AGP office in due time.

He said the auditors conducted the internal audit of the IHC without any malice and it was done by the order of the incumbent IHC Chief Justice Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi.

During the external audit, the auditors would examine those objections which had been raised in the internal audit, he added.

The IHC additional registrar (establishment) Salamat Ali said he cannot comment on the matter.

Additional registrar, Shahzada Aslam, said the IHC administration would ask the AGP office for an external audit but he did not give any date as to when the external auditors would be allowed to examine the record.