ISLAMABAD, May 7: Considered to be the most powerful arm of the parliament, the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly, which will meet on Tuesday after a gap of six months, faces the daunting task of getting various directives of the previous committee implemented.

The outgoing chairman of the PAC, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, resigned in November last year because of what he called the government’s failure to respect its directives.

Last week, the committee unanimously elected Nadeem Afzal Gondal of the PPP as the new PAC chairman.

A number of issues which were repeatedly discussed in the committee’s meetings but remained unresolved over the past four years will be presented before the Gondal-led PAC.

One can argue that Mr Nisar, being from the opposition party, might have not received good treatment from government departments for implementation on directives of the previous committee, but now it will be interesting to see how the new chairman of the committee, who belongs to the PPP, will resolve all outstanding audit issues and what will be the response of the government departments.

The much-talked about scam of Rs2 billion loss caused to the National Logistic Cell (NLC) by three former military generals has been proved and it will again come up before the committee when it takes up audit paras on the ministry of defence. The Chaudhry Nisar-led committee had recommended departmental disciplinary actions against the accused and the PAC’s order is yet to be implemented.

Another important audit para which has more than once deliberated upon during meetings of the committee is the use of secret funds by various government departments.

The previous committee had recommended a comprehensive audit of all those departments which are keeping secret funds, but a report to this effect is still awaited.

The former committee on number of occasions had taken up the issue of the use of military lands and asked the government through the ministry of defence to prepare a new policy for the subject. At the end of every financial year, government auditors show billions of rupees outstanding against various cantonment boards mainly because of unclear government guidelines use of government land under military control. Therefore, the PAC wanted a thorough review of the government policy on the use of military lands, but so far there is no development.

The previous committee was also up in arms over the massive misuse of government vehicles and had asked the PPP government to frame a new transport policy whereby no government official and minister should be allowed to keep more than one official vehicle. This issue is yet to be resolved by the committee.

The previous PAC chairman had also sought mandatory audit of the Supreme Court expenditures.

The leader of Opposition in the National Assembly had written a couple of letters to the Supreme Court Registrar for the purpose, but the latter contended it didn’t fall within the purview of the PAC.

Whatever the situation, the issue is still there and the new chairman has expressed his desire to call the SC Registrar for explanation on audit paras related to the Supreme Court.

The previous committee had also ordered a couple of inquiries into the misuse of Pakistan Railways’ land and selling of its scrap through shady deals. Reports are still awaited on the issue. Moreover, Mr Gondal as the chairman of a special committee of the National Assembly on PR had presented a comprehensive report on the dubious sale of PR land to a private party right in the centre of Lahore. Now as the chairman of the PAC, he can ask for the status of implementation on this issue also.