ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly summoned on Wednesday the director general of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) after its representatives failed to satisfy the panel over an investigation into the sale of buildings of Pakistani missions in Tokyo and Jakarta.

PAC member Mian Abdul Manan criticised NAB for not questioning former president Pervez Musharraf over according ‘irregular’ approval to the sale of the Jakarta building, to the then ambassador to Indonesia, retired Maj Gen Syed Mustafa Anwar Hussain, who had been ‘his mentor’.

According to an audit report, in February 2002 Mr Hussain sold the chancery building for $1.32 million. It said that “the property was disposed of in a non-transparent manner i.e. without advertisement in the press for competitive bidding or inviting sealed bids”.

After the sale sparked a controversy, “the ministry of foreign affairs moved a summary to the chief executive (Gen Musharraf) requesting that the ambassador be instructed to annul the sale agreement and a high-level inquiry committee be sent to Jakarta” for an investigation.

On May 16, 2002 Mr Musharraf approved the sale of the building.

The auditors informed the committee that Mr Hussain engaged a consultant ‘without obtaining approval from the quarters concerned’ but ‘did not pay his fee’. Later the consultant filed a suit in an Indonesian court to seek recovery of $446,000 from the Pakistan government.

The consultant also filed a suit in a civil court of Lahore but the foreign ministry did not pursue the case. As a result the court issued a decree against the ministry.

But Foreign Affairs Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry told the committee that the ministry had taken up the matter and obtained a stay order.

He said that since the matters (the sale of the Jakarta building and the dispute over the consultant’s dues) were being investigated by NAB, the bureau would be in a better position to apprise the committee of the situation.

A NAB director said an investigation team had ‘examined’ the former ambassador and the inquiry had established his misconduct in the case.

The bureau is now trying to obtain evidence of any financial gain made by the former ambassador, but has not succeeded so far.

The committee expressed dissatisfaction over delay in conclusion of another investigation into the sale of the Tokyo embassy building.

Shafqat Mehmood, a member, asked why NAB was still not in a position to determine whether the sale was transparent.

PAC Chairman Khursheed Shah asked the secretary of the committee to ensure presence of the NAB director general in the meeting on Thursday.

He said the NAB chairman should not depute officials below grade-20 for assisting the committee.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2016