ISLAMABAD: In a first, the chief justice of Islamabad High Court (IHC) has ordered forensic audit of the IHC and the East and West Division of the district courts.

According to the circular issued by the registrar office of the IHC, the auditor general of Pakistan has been asked to conduct the forensic audit for the last five years (Sept 30, 2015 till Sept 30, 2020).

The IHC administration used to conduct an internal audit every fiscal year, however, the circular states that IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah, “has desired that an independent external audit, through expert auditors of the constitutional office of the auditor general of Pakistan, Islamabad be conducted.”

“Therefore, the forensic audit of Islamabad High Court for aforementioned period is going to be conducted with effect from September 14, 2020 by an audit team assigned by the directorate general audit, Islamabad”, the circular said.

The IHC administration has nominated five officials to coordinate with the audit team including Deputy Registrars Awaisul Hassan, Ghulam Murtaza, Ali Ahmed Khan, Assistant Registrars Rashid Farooq Qureshi, Yasir Altaf and LDC Imtiaz Ahmed.

The registrar office directed sections, branches and wings of the IHC as well as the lower judiciary to compile the record and produce it to the audit coordinator Rashid Farooq Qureshi by Sept 12.

This is the first time that any constitutional court in Pakistan has asked the office of the auditor general to conduct forensic audit.

In the past, the auditor general would conduct audit of the Supreme Court and lay the audit reports before the parliament, where they were discussed in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

After the lawyers’ movement when the judiciary was restored, then Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry discontinued the practice of sending the SC registrar to PAC to remove objections on audit reports.

Former chief justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman had ordered audit of the accounts of high courts and the audit report of financial year 2011 highlighted out-of-turn appointments and other financial discrepancies in the IHC’s accounts.

On the basis of these audit reports and its coverage in the mainstream media, a lawyer Mohammad Arif Chaudhry challenged the appointments made in the IHC during the tenure of Justice Rehman.

In 2016, Justice Amir Hani Muslim of the SC had declared IHC’s appointments illegal and subsequently, about 50 senior officials of the IHC had either been terminated or repatriated to their previous departments from where they jointed the IHC service.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2020