MUZAFFARABAD, Dec 4: The new Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Azad Kashmir at its inaugural meeting on Monday vowed to ensure transparency in financial matters and improvement in the working of the government departments.

The meeting, held at the committee room of the MLA Hostel here, was presided over by PAC Chairman Chaudhry Tariq Farooq and attended by MLAs Sardar Tahir Anwar, Noreen Arif, Sahibzada Ishaq Zafar, Sardar Ghulam Sadiq, the secretaries and heads of the departments, the accountant-general and the director of the local audit fund and other officials concerned.

The PAC chairman said the committee would ensure that the government departments performed their functions, particularly financial deeds, with honesty and commitment so that desired results could be achieved.

He directed the heads of the departments and principal accounting officers to enforce strict financial discipline in their respective jurisdictions and asked them to provide working papers to the PAC on time. If the need arose, he added, the audit system, which was in practice in Pakistan, would be enforced in the AJK to improve the working of the departments.

He stated that the semi-government institutions had avoided presenting their records to the previous PAC, but made it clear that he would ensure that every department accounted for every penny spent from government exchequer.

The chairman lauded the performance of his predecessor, Syed Shoukat Naqvi, saying that the previous committee had made commendable recoveries under his command.

On behalf of the opposition legislators, Sahibzada Ishaq Zafar remarked that the working of the PAC in the AJK was much better than those in the provinces of Pakistan.