ISLAMABAD, Aug 30: Unauthorised expenditure incurred in a political witch hunt cannot be regularised by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a spokesman for the Pakistan People’s Party said on Wednesday.

In a statement, he said PAC was informed recently by the auditor-general of Pakistan (AGP) that corruption references filed by former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan against Benazir Bhutto and the Rs28 million spent on it by way of fees to the legal advisers were all illegal.

“No civil suit can be initiated on behalf of the federal government by any division/department without the approval of the justice division and in case of Ms Bhutto the approval was not obtained at all,” he quoted the report of the AGP to the committee.

He said according to press reports, the committee also regularised the expenditure after being told that the departments concerned had empowered the AGP to make the expenditure regularised on the directives of the then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

The PPP said PAC cannot override the constitutional protection afforded to citizens, adding the party reserved the right to take up the issue of the illegal and unauthorised expenditure used to violate provisions of the constitution regarding fundamental rights against the most popular leader of the country and the party led by her.

The revelations before the PAC that the references filed against Ms Bhutto were illegal is the most categorical vindication of the former prime minister’s innocence, he said.

He said sooner or later it would also be proved that the present set of cases were also being pursued by the regime with the sole aim of subverting democracy in the country and perpetuating military dictatorship.