PESHAWAR: The speaker of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Babar Saleem Swati, claimed here on Monday that an internal accountability committee of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) cleared him of corruption charges.

The committee, however, in a letter informed PTI founder Imran Khan that it was not issuing any order to the speaker on legal grounds but he must withdraw certain decisions he made in violation of the manifesto of party.

The speaker, during an informal meeting with parliamentary reporters, said that the internal accountability committee, formed by PTI founder Imran Khan, launched an inquiry against him after former senator Azam Swati, at a gathering in Mansehra, levelled allegations of corruption against him.

He claimed that the committee could not find anything against him and thus gave him a clear chit. “They have cleared me. The inquiry is closed,” Mr Saleem claimed.

Accountability committee accuses him of violating party manifesto

He informed journalists that soon after the former senator accused him of corruption, he wrote letters to Mr Khan and provincial president of PTI and Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur to order an inquiry and probe the allegations.

The speaker said that the inquiry was against corruption but later it started probing irregularities and accused the former senator of being compromised. “He [the former senator] is a liar and compromised. He made accusations of corruption but the inquiry was conducted into irregularities,” he said.

The letter, duly signed by all the three members of the PTI accountability committee, informed PTI founder that former senator Azam Swati, after his release from Attock jail, addressed public meeting in Mansehra and levelled allegations of corruption against Mr Saleem and the adviser to chief minister on tourism, Zahid Chanzeb.

It said that the speaker wrote a letter to the committee and requested independent probe into the allegations. The committee sent the letter to the former senator.

The former senator, on receipt of the letter, sent a proper complaint against the speaker in respect of promotions of the staff of provincial assembly and certain appointments and also certain expenditures on speaker’s house, MPA Hostel and Hamala House Nathiagali. The committee sought a reply from the speaker. The speaker sent the reply along with the record of promotions and appointments.

The letter said that the committee was mindful of the constitutional status of the speaker, who was the custodian of the rights and privileges of KP Assembly and was not subordinate to anyone outside the assembly. That’s why the committee was not issuing any order to the speaker on legal grounds, it added.

It, however, said that the speaker, as member of the assembly, was expected to be the custodian of PTI manifesto through his demonstrated actions. It said that the committee recommended to the speaker to revisit all the promotions, recruitment, upgradation, moving of non-gazetted positions to gazetted ones during his tenure and include Sareer, Syed Waqar Shah, Ayaz, and Aurangzeb, and pass such orders, which might be just and proper in line with the PTI manifesto and vision of former prime minister Imran Khan.

The speaker said that an inquiry was being carried out into the alleged irregularities in an official account of provincial government. He added that Public Accounts Committee of KP Assembly asked the auditor general of Pakistan to carry out a 10-year audit.

The PAC asked the auditor general to launch the probe after National Accountability Bureau (NAB) started an inquiry into the alleged irregularities of Rs36 billion in account No G-10113 for earnest money, security and deposit funds of local government, communication and works, irrigation and public health accounts.

The speaker said that PAC’s role was to oversight. He added that an audit would uncover everything.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2025