MULTAN: Auditor General of Pakistan Buland Akhtar Rana says the office of AGP is a constitutional institution and even parliament is not authorised to summon him.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he said: “If the office of AGP is not higher to the parliament, it is also not lesser than the parliament; however we consider parliament supreme.”

Mr Rana said he was the head of one of the four or five constitutional institutions of the country and ready to appear before the parliament “but if any institution will disgrace us, we are also not bound to respect the institution.”

“Even the parliament can’t summon the AGP as we are only accountable to God and the Constitution while the auditor general can even refuse to the president of Pakistan,” he said.

Mr Rana said the audit report of Election Commission of Pakistan for year 2013 had been submitted to the president. He said his office had also submitted the audit report for 2013. “We have many national secrets. Not even a single committee has been constituted in the history of the parliament that has discussed misappropriation of billions.”

He said he had submitted year-wise audit reports of five-year tenure of the PPP government while the first annual audit report of the current government was also submitted.

He said the people should ask the parliament as to why action on the reports of AGP had not been taken.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2014