ISLAMABAD, Jan 26: Defence Secretary Lt-Gen Tariq Waseem Ghazi has declined to provide any information to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly about the nature of the agreement Pakistan has reached with the US for using its airbases in its campaign in Afghanistan, the money it has so far received and the names of those who had signed the agreement.

The secretary on Friday refused to respond to a volley of questions put by some members, saying it was not in the purview of the committee to discuss such matters.

On Thursday, the secretary had informed the PAC that some of Pakistan’s airbases were on standby for the United States. The committee wanted to know more about the hitherto “secret contract”.

The PAC wanted to know who had signed the agreement with the US under which the American army was using Pakistani bases. No such agreement has been approved by parliament.

“Is there any agreement between Pentagon and the Defence Ministry or Pentagon and an individual?” member of the committee and MNA Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan asked the defence secretary.

But, Let-Gen Ghazi reiterated that it was not in the purview of the PAC to ask him such questions when he was there to reply to objections of the audit department about the defence ministry.

“You need not judge our purview. We know what is in our purview and what is not,” Mr Khan told the secretary.

The committee then directed the finance ministry to provide it with the details of the agreement. Some members were of the view that it was vital to know whether any such agreement was in the national interest of an ideological state like Pakistan.

They said that it was still a mystery where the government was depositing the money it was receiving from the US in exchange for its airbases and other logistic support.

Is the money being kept in the Federal Consolidated Fund? If yes, then under which head. I think the best word will be blood money, because we have given our airports to an occupier who is killing our brothers in Afghanistan, Nisar Ali Khan said.

As the secretary defence remained silent on the issue, Mr Khan said he should be told whether the issue was a “national secret”. If yes, then he would not ask any such question again. Other members endorsed this viewpoint.