ISLAMABAD: In a meeting on Wednesday, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) remained divided over the release of Rs480 billion to clear the amount owed to private power producers with lawmakers from PTI and PML-N holding on to their opposing views and the PAC chairman, a senior PPP politician, undecided.

After dealing with the agenda for the day, PAC member and PTI lawmaker Shafqat Mehmood cited media reports and asked PAC Chairman Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, who is the opposition leader in the lower house, to explain the PAC’s stance over the issue of releasing Rs480 billion for circular debt and said that the media reports indicate that the matter has been settled.

The issue had first arisen when the PML-N government had asked the State Bank of Pakistan in July 2013 to issue Rs480 billion to settle circular debt to power sectors.

The then auditor general Akhtar Buland Rana claims to have been removed from service after he raised objections over the said release.

The incumbent Auditor General of Pakistan Rana Asad Amin conducted a special audit in December of last year and presented a report before the house.

According to the report, such payments may be released after a pre-audit by the Accountant General of Pakistan. However, the finance division had released the amount without a pre-audit.

The report went on to say that the matter had been reported to the Ministry of Finance in August 2015, with the management replying that the payment had been made in extreme emergency.

In October last year, PTI MNA Shafqat Mehmood wrote to the PAC chairman and urged him to take the matter up. The audit authorities also gave a presentation to PAC in February this year about the audit conducted for the release of Rs480 billion to the power sector.

According to PML-N lawmaker Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, PAC had expressed satisfaction over the audit report and the release of the money.

“The matter had been settled, but some of the members want to drag out the controversy,” he told Dawn.

“PAC had fixed a date for a detailed presentation on the matter, but both the PTI members were not present which was not the committee’s fault as it cannot force a member to attend a meeting. It is the responsibility of the members to attend proceedings. In this instance, it was the PTI members who had moved the matter and they should have been there for the presentation,” he said.

Terming the indecisiveness of the PAC chairman as courteous, Mr Chaudhry said that Chairman Shah should not leave room for a review of the debt because the matter had been closed after the auditor general’s presentation.

During Wednesday’s meeting, when PTI’s Shafqat Mehmood raised the issue, the PAC chairman’s response was not clear. He expressed satisfaction over the presentation made by the audit authorities and at the same time, hinted that the matter was still alive by saying: “This issue has been settled, almost. However, the committee would review this after the auditor general [recovers from health issues]”.

The chairman said that when PAC was discussing the matter, PTI’s Shafqat Mehmood and Dr Alvi had not been attending.

“After that, the auditor general fell ill and we are waiting for his recovery to review this,” he said.

Adopting a lighter tone, the chairman also suggested Mr Mehmood pray for the auditor general’s health if he wanted an early review of the release of Rs480 billion.

Shafqat Mehmood maintains that the issue is not settled because PTI MNAs were not attending when PAC had taken up the special audit report.

Talking to Dawn, he said that the committee should also hear the point of view of PTI MNAs and should also take cognizance of an earlier report prepared by the sacked auditor general Buland Rana.

“I have written to the PAC chairman and will raise the issue of the release of circular debt at every forum,” he vowed.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2016