PESHAWAR: For the first time, members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee will go all the way to Islamabad to hold a series of meetings causing heavy costs to the exchequer amid the ruling PTI’s austerity claims.

The schedule of PAC meetings issued on Nov 23 and available with Dawn shows that the committee will meet in Islamabad from Dec 3 to Dec 11 to take up dozens of audit paras (objections) to the affairs of 18 government departments.

An army of government officers, supporting staff members, assembly members and other relevant officials will travel to the federal capital and stay for several days to attend PAC meetings at the Pakhtunkhwa House, Islamabad, making the provincial government bear the cost of their traveling, lodging, food, refreshments and fuel.

No reason for cite in the schedule for the holding of the meetings in Islamabad.

A committee meeting notice issued by the provincial assembly’s secretariat says that Speaker and PAC chairman Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani has convened a series of the committee’s meetings at the Pakhtunkhwa House, Islamabad.

The first sitting will take place on Dec 3 to discuss 22 audit paras of the food and environment departments, the second 21 audit paras regarding health department and the third 19 audit paras of health and energy departments.

The PAC will also discuss 21 audit paras of the industries, housing, science and technology, relief, rehabilitation and settlement departments.

In its fifth meeting scheduled to be held on Dec 7, 21 audit paras of the home and tribal affairs, transport and information departments will be taken up.

Likewise, 20 audit paras of the higher education department, 10 of the public health engineering department and two on finance department will be discussed at the sixth and seventh meetings.

The PAC will take up 18 audit paras of the communication and works department in its eighth meeting. The last meeting will take place on Dec 13 to discuss 14 audit paras of the auqaf and Haj, planning and development and communication and works departments.

Asked who will represent the department to clear the audit paras in the forthcoming PAC meetings, a senior officer told Dawn that several officials including secretary of the relevant department had to appear in the meeting for the purpose.

He said if the audit para was regarding the district education of Chitral, then the secretary of the elementary and secondary education department and his support staff, the district education officer of Chitral and his staff would appear in the PAC meeting.

The officials of the each department will definitely stay for two nights in the KP House, Islamabad.

An official of the KP assembly secretariat told Dawn that the PAC often held its meeting in Abbottabad in the summer season as the weather there was relatively pleasant compared to Peshawar.

“I have heard for the first time in my professional career that the PAC will meet in Islamabad,” he said.

The official said even the PAC met in Peshawar when the law and order was worsening and suicide attack was recurring phenomena, he said.

When contacted, Speaker Mushtaq Ghani claimed that it had yet not been decided to hold the PAC meetings in Islamabad.

When asked about the meeting schedule shared with departments, he said it didn’t matter and could be ‘corrected’ if the need arose.

The speaker said he had decided to hold the PAC meetings in Islamabad after seeing MPAs, who weren’t part of the committee, interfere with the meetings in Peshawar by coming to him for personal work.

He insisted that he had asked the assembly secretariat’s relevant staff members on Tuesday to hold the PAC meetings in Peshawar if the exercise in Islamabad cost a lot.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2018