Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has called for the immediate arrest of all those involved in misappropriation of Rs980 billion in the power sector as pointed out by the auditor general of Pakistan (AGP).
“All those guilty should immediately be arrested and held accountable beginning from the top and going down the chain of command of the bureaucracy,” he said in a statement issued on Monday. “No one should be spared.”
The AGP has asked the president to order investigations into specific cases after reporting irregularities of almost Rs1 trillion in the 2013-14 accounts of power companies working under the water and power ministry. Commenting on the revelations, the PTI chief said unless those involved in corrupt practices were punished, merely exposing their fraud or corruption would not change anything. “The time has come to expose and hold accountable all those who have defrauded the nation of taxpayers’ money,” he said in the statement.
He said the accounts of Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and other power companies showed the entire power structure was suffering from pervasive corruption and mismanagement. Even today these people continue to function in a questionable and non-transparent fashion due to which the energy crisis continues to aggravate, he added.
The PTI chairman pointed out the amount of Rs980 billion was almost one-fourth of the total federal budget of Rs4 trillion for the current fiscal.
“The fact this mega-corruption was hidden for two years is just one more example of the PPP and PML-N deal that has allowed the leaders of these two parties to rob the country with no fear of accountability,” he claimed.
He said Wapda’s directorate general of audit, which is supposed to look after the power sector accounts, had admitted to having deliberately ignored misappropriation, fraud and other irregularities in cases of less than Rs1 million.
In fiscal 2012-2013, according to the directorate, 184 cases of irregular expenditures, rule violations and unjustified payments were found, amounting to Rs368.65 billion.
“The revelations about arrears, overpayments, costs resulting from accidents and negligence, and weaknesses in internal control mechanisms, show an organisational structure that is decaying because of corruption and mismanagement,” Imran added.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2015.
COMMENTS (2)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ