ISLAMABAD, Dec 18: After huffing and puffing for over a week, the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly decided on Tuesday to take the issue of Supreme Court registrar Dr Faqir Hussain, who refused to appear before the PAC, to the house for a final word.

“We have decided to take the issue of SC registrar’s appearance before the committee back to the National Assembly for further clarity to avoid much-talked about clash between parliament and judiciary,” PAC chairman Nadeem Afzal Gondal briefed reporters after an in-camera meeting of the committee.

He said under the Constitution, National Assembly rules, views of constitutional experts, ministry of law and Auditor General of Pakistan, the registrar was supposed to come before the committee for mandatory settlement of court’s accounts.

However, unfortunately, he was continuously refusing despite repeated reminders.

Mr Gondal said the committee had the power to straightway issue summons for the SC registrar or file a reference against him in the house but the committee members were of the view that the issue should be taken to the house before resorting to the last option.

He refused to accept that the committee had backtracked on its earlier assertion that it would enforce its decision come what may.

The PAC chairman has powers under clause (3) of Article 66 of the Constitution vested in civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Act V of 1908), for enforcing the attendance of any person and compelling the production of documents.

“The issue will be put before the house within next couple of days for the final word. If the house decides there is no need for the SC registrar to come before the PAC or wants the committee to use its powers to summon him we will follow the direction,” said the PAC chairman.

Mr Gondal said that if needed the committee would request for a joint sitting of the house to settle the issue once for all. “We are only pressing for implementation of the Constitution in letter and spirit and have no personal grudges against anybody,” he said.

He said that appropriation accounts of the Supreme Court from 2001-02 to 2010-11 were lying pending before the committee.

Mr Gondal said the registrar’s stance that the SC drew its expenditure from the consolidated fund and thus fell out of the PAC’s domain didn’t hold ground because the presidency, the prime minister’s secretariat, National Assembly and the Senate had all been appearing before the committee even though they too drew their money from the consolidated fund.

He said that as far as the committee was concerned all its members were of the view that the SC registrar should appear before the committee and after the 18th Amendment the PAC’s role had been strengthened for the oversight of government expenditures.

“If someone talks about high principles of Islamic jurisprudence, according to which even a ruling caliph had to give justification for the expenditures, they (judges) should also follow these principles,” said Mr Gondal.

SROs: The PAC set up a special committee with deputy chairman of the planning commission, Dr Nadeem-ul-Haq, in the chair to formulate a comprehensive policy to address the issue of statutory regulatory orders, which the Federal Board of Revenue regularly issued to increase or decrease taxes on case-to-case basis.

The National Assembly was informed last week that over the past four years the government had provided tax waivers to the tune of Rs656 billion by using such SROs.

The committee will have representation from the FBR, ministries of commerce and industries, Board of Investment, Competition Commission of Pakistan, Tariff Commission and audit department.

The committee was informed by the FBR officials led by its chairman Ali Arshad Hakeem that the FBR had been empowered to use these SROs.

However, consensus emerged that the practice of issuing SROs by the FBR, which actually was meant to facilitate businessmen and industrialists, needed to be reviewed.The committee will come back with its report within 10 days.

Mr Haq said the country was losing investment because of the imprudent use of SROs.

He said that besides the developed world India had also stopped using SROs.

The committee members recommended a review of the policy about SROs.