The issue of the composition of the key Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly, and particularly the appointment of its chairman is to the fore again following the recent national elections. Various MNA’s in the ruling coalition are keen on the chairmanship.

But the best method of making the PAC effective is appointing a senior opposition member as its chairman, as done in the West. But. the ruling coalition is under pressure from several influential members for the post of the chairman. But when the chairman is from the ruling party he may have to be lenient. to some of the erring ministers and the officials who act on their behalf. Hence the desirability of an opposition member as chairman of the PAC.

But in the present chaotic state of the National Assembly with its large divide between the government and the opposition, the government may want to appoint a coalition member as chairman of the PAC.

Of the 36 standing committees of the parliament, the PAC is the most important and powerful as it can oversee how the numerous ministries and divisions had spent their money or squandered or embezzled it.

The PAC as it meets soon has to deal with as many as 30,000 paragraphs of audit objections of the Auditor General which are awaiting immediate attention in regard to how the public funds were spent in the past.

Since the tradition in Pakistan has more often been to appoint ruling party members as chairman of the PAC, Hakim Ali Zardari became chairman of the PAC in the days of Benazir Bhutto as prime minister. But earlier Khawaja Safdar as a very senior member of the house became the chairman of PAC and was an effective functionary as he had threatened to resign several times if others interfered with his work. He pulled up many ministers and officials who misused public funds.

Regardless of who eventually becomes chairman of the PAC, the most important question now is whether its hearings will be public, particularly open to the press? Mr H.U Beg as chairman of the adhoc PAC, under the military rule made the hearings open to the press and he found that exceedingly useful. And that made many officials want to correct their mistakes quick. So he strongly recommended that future hearings of the PAC should be open to the press, however distasteful that could be to the officials and the erring ministers. Whether the politicians honour what a senior civil servant had recommended on the basis of his excellent experience, remains to be seen.

It is no use having a high-powered Auditor General appointed by the president if his recommendations are not strongly backed by the PAC or the parliament as a whole. And it is necessary that the misspending or embezzlement is detected early, and not long after the guilty persons had left the service or had even died.

When Mohammed Khan Junejo as prime minister was given the findings of the PAC’s deliberations, he asked what was the use proposing action long after the guilty had left the scene or left this world.? There is a clear sense of urgency in the work of the Attorney General as well as the recommendations of the PAC on the basis of that.

Forerunners among the candidates for the office of chairman of the PAC now is Kunwar Khalid Younis, the Harvard educated Muttaheda Quomi Movement MNA. Nasrullah Derashek, the PML (Q) MNA from Punjab is also confidant he will get the job on the basis of strong backing for him from his party leader Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain. Hanud Nasir Chattha, former federal minister, is among the names mentioned now as a possible candidate. If the choice has to be made from the opposition it can be Chaudhary Nisar Ali, former minister for petroleum or Naveed Qamar, former privatization minister. More than trying to recover the lost or wasted public funds, it is essential to try to prevent their wastage. A system, which allowed Gohar Ayub Khan, eight cars as Speaker of the National Assembly which was followed by Yusuf Raza Gilani who had 10 cars in three places - Islamabad, Rawlapindi and Lahore. At all these places he had set up his offices, while the NA was in Islamabad This could not be justified at all.

It had been suggested that to prevent such abuses there should be a pre-expenditure audit instead of a post- waste audit. While the officials have acknowledged its merit, that has not been put into practice as the officials who want to spend money in this manner are usually in a hurry to get things done for themselves.

As a result of such misspending or hasty spending the National Assembly is confronted at the end of the year with a large supplementary budget but the budget is passed by the Assembly quick after the ministers say the money had already been spent and it is no use crying over spilt milk. The ministers then go on to misspend more in the same old manner, assured that they will not be punished or penalized for their folly.

For some years now there has been a race to get new Toyota Corolla cars for senior officials and they want the new models to be available to them as soon as they come out. Officials not entitled to get such cars also try to get hold of them and often succeed on the basis of their influence.

The president of the Pakistan Lawyers Forum, Mr. A.K Dogar filed a petition against the luxurious living of officials in the Lahore High Court and after that petition had been rejected by a division bench with the argument that life style was a personal matter, he has moved the full bench of the Lahore High Court and the full court headed by Justice Tassadaq Hussain Jilani will take up the matter at length on September 29 .

All that makes the composition and chairmanship of the PAC very important and the issue of whether its hearings will be open to the press is very relevant.