ISLAMABAD: The members of a Senate committee on were stunned on Tuesday when two key federal secretaries informed them that their ministries did not possess any record regarding investigations into the alleged corruption in the process of privatisation of the Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB).

The disclosure by Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood and Privatisation Secretary Sardar Ahmed Nawaz angered the members of the Senate Standing Committee on Rules and Privileges, headed by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Tahir Mashhadi, which decided to carry out a complete investigation to find out as to who was lying before parliament.

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The secretaries also expressed their ignorance about a meeting held on May 13, 2002 under the then finance minister, Shaukat Aziz, to recommend action on the findings of National Accou8jntability Bureau’s investigation.

The opposition senators, particularly those belonging to the PPP, expressed serious reservations over the secretaries’ replies and asked how a finance minister could hold a “secret meeting” in the ministry.

Talking to Dawn, Senator Mashhadi said the responses from various government functionaries showed that someone was telling a lie as the committee had been provided a letter written by a former chairman of NAB, confirming that it was carrying out investigations into the MCB sale.

“Either the state or NAB; someone is lying, and we are to find it out,” he said.

Mr Mashhadi said the committee had decided to summon the NAB chairman, the governor of the State Bank (SBP) and the law secretary in its next meeting to ascertain their viewpoints on the matter.

The meeting had been called to discuss a privilege motion by PPP’s Saeed Ghani against the finance ministry for allegedly providing wrong information in reply to two questions in the Senate regarding the number of companies and institutions that had been privatised.

Mr Ghani pointed out while moving the motion that the ministry had given two different figures of the number of privatised institutions and the name of the MCB was not in both lists.

He told the committee that Mr Aziz had presided the meeting that had been attended by then SBP governor Dr Ishrat Hussain, NAB chairman Munir Hafeez and former privatisation minister Altaf Saleem. However, he said, the finance ministry had expressed ignorance about any such meeting.

On the other hand, he said, in reply to his another question the law ministry had informed the house that the meeting did take place and decided to refer the matter to the SBP for further action.

And, he said, the SBP had stated that it had nothing to do with any action on the basis of a NAB report since it was only a regulating body under the SBP Act of 1956.

The privatisation secretary told the committee that the MCB was privatised when the ministry did not exist. The bank was privatised during the first government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the 1990s.

When Mr Mashhadi asked the finance secretary to explain as to why the ministry had not included the name of the MCB in the list of privatised companies, he said no record was available with the ministry about the bank’s privatisation. He said the ministry also had no record that the issue had been referred to the Federal Investigation Agency or NAB. He said he was not hiding any facts.

Former law minister Farooq Naek suggested that the NAB chairman should be asked to present complete record and minutes of the 2002 meeting which would help clarify the situation.

PPP’s Raza Rabbani called for summoning Mr Saleem and Mr Aziz as well to explain their position before the committee. He called for bringing Mr Aziz through Interpol if he did not comply with the committee’s directive.

The Awami National Party’s Afrasiab Khattak supported Mr Rabbani’s demand.

However, Senator Mashhadi did not issue any such directive.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2014