ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which oversees government spending, has sought details of Toshakhana gifts received by politicians, judges, generals and bureaucrats during their foreign visits over the past 10 years.

In its meeting on Tuesday, the committee decided to send letters to the cabinet division, Supreme Court, army, air force and navy and provincial governors to provide details of foreign gifts taken by public office-holders.

The PAC was also informed that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had illegally occupied the building of the Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission.

Noor Alam Khan, who presided over the meeting, said these gifts were not awarded to individuals but to public office-holders who represented the government of Pakistan during their foreign visits. Therefore, these gifts had to be declared and deposited in Toshakhana under the law, he said.

He also insisted that the PAC wanted to know the procedure and law under which the value of gifts was determined.

“The committee wants to know the names of political leaders, chief ministers, governors, judges, generals, bureaucrats, the federal secretaries who received gifts during their foreign visits during the last 10 years and whether they declared those gifts in Toshakhana,” he said.

“They were initially reluctant to share the record with PAC. Therefore, I ordered the auditor general to obtain the record,” Mr Alam said, adding that later the committee would review the process of auction of those gifts.

Separately, speaking in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Mr Alam, a disgruntled PTI leader, compared former premier Imran Khan with the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claiming both challenged the writ of the state.

Regretting that the federal government had failed to act against Mr Khan, he said the PTI chief was attacking the same army chief “who played a role in making Imran Khan the prime minister and took the PTI from zero to hero”.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2022