ISLAMABAD, Feb 1: In an interesting turn of events, the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) stopped on Friday salary of three top officers and judicial allowance of two others because of objections raised by the Auditor General of Pakistan.

A senior government official told Dawn that salary of Finance Secretary Abdul Wajid Rana, Adviser to the Ministry of Finance Rana Asad Amin and Law Secretary Yasmin Abbasi had been stopped because they were working in the highest grade-22 positions on a contract basis allegedly in violation of the Supreme Court order in the Haj scandal case.

The judicial allowance of Federal Ombudsman Dr Shoaib Suddle and Attorney General Irfan Qadir has been stopped because they are not entitled to the allowance as required under the law.

An official at the AGPR said the decision had been taken on the basis of a letter received from AGP Akhtar Buland Rana who had also enclosed the SC judgment in the Haj scandal case barring re-employment of retired officers or those hired on a contract basis and observations made by the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly.

Abdul Wajid Rana was re-employed on contract in November last year and designated as ‘principal officer’ to look after the duty of the finance secretary after his retirement on reaching the age of superannuation.

Rana Assad Amin was re-hired on contract as ‘adviser’ in May last year after he retired as special secretary of finance. The official said the AGP had objected to the judicial allowance of about Rs170,000 per month being paid to the Federal Ombudsman and the attorney general because they never held judicial positions in the eyes of the law. He explained that the ombudsman was entitled only to normal salary and related perks and allowances, and not the judicial allowance which was permissible only to those officers who had worked as judges in the past.

The AGPR official said that although Attorney General Irfan Qadir had worked as a judge under the Provisional Constitutional Order issued by Gen Pervez Musharraf, his appointment, along with that of many other PCO judges, was declared illegal by the Supreme Court.

Mr Qadir and Yasmin Abbasi, also a former PCO judge, were appointed as attorney general and law secretary respectively on April 12 last year by former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

A senior officer at the finance ministry confirmed that salary of the two ‘Ranas’ had not been released on the instructions of another ‘Rana’ heading the AGP office. But he declined to comment on record, saying consultations were being held with legal experts.

“We understand that the law does not allow the AGP to order stoppage of salary or allowances,” he said, adding that the AGP had powers to raise objections to any unauthorised payment, but he could not stop salary or allowances.

The official said audit objections had to go through departmental replies for settlement of such objections and if these remained unresolved, an audit para for consideration was sent to the Public Accounts Committee, which was the final adjudicating forum in matters relating to public money. “The Auditor General of Pakistan’s office is not an adjudicating forum,” he said.

Another official said the AGP wanted to deal directly with the Prime Minister Secretariat on some key issues even though technically and administrative the office was an attached department of the finance ministry and all correspondence between the AGP and the PM Secretariat should go through the finance ministry.

Last month, AGP Buland Rana had criticised the government at a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee for giving control of the country’s finances to two officials who had been appointed in violation of rules and the apex court’s orders, a reference to the finance secretary and the finance adviser.

“I personally believe the poor financial management which we are witnessing here at the PAC is chiefly because of such illegal appointments,” Mr Rana said, adding that legally speaking, the finance ministry as of today had no principal accounting officer because both the officers stood retired.

According to one explanation, the finance secretary is an authorised position of the government to look after financial affairs of the state and the person has to be a civil servant, as defined by the Estacode and rules of business. However, in case of re-hiring after retirement, the contract employee does not fall in the definition of a civil servant.