PHOTO: AGP.GOV
The auditor general of Pakistan (AGP) has urged the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly to catch the ‘big fish’ involved in the irregular sale of the country’s embassies in Japan and Indonesia, putting the panel’s authority to the test.
AGP Rana Assad Amin made the remarks during a PAC meeting on Thursday to discuss years old cases of the irregular sales of the Tokyo and Jakarta embassies by the then ambassadors without prior authorisation from Islamabad. The embassies were sold off under the regime of Pervez Musharraf.
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“Every one of you knows who approved the deals and who pressured the Inter-Ministerial Committee and you should catch those who were sitting at the top,” Amin said while urging the committee to not waste time on culprits lower in hierarchy.
His comments highlight the challenge that parliament’s strongest arm faces. Over the last couple of years, PAC has settled dozens of cases to save the skins of powerful individuals.
After a threadbare discussion on Wednesday, PAC called the director general (DG) of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to get an update on the embassy cases. The committee, then led by Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, referred the cases to NAB in 2012.
Briefing the panel, NAB DG Zahir Shah said the bureau has not yet solved the case. He said progress couldn’t be made since the government of Japan was not cooperating. He added that the NAB chairman has set a March 30 deadline for concluding the case.
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According to Shah, NAB is investigating whether the sales cause losses to the national exchequer and if the officers involved received kickbacks. He said the government has invoked the mutual legal assistance agreement with Japan through the Foreign Office (FO) to find out the value of properties adjacent to the sold-off embassy.
“Whether or not officers received kickbacks can only be determined through the price comparison,” the NAB DG said.
PAC members, however, opined that the NAB inquiry was progressing in the wrong direction and that the bureau was ‘unjustifiably slowing the probe’.
“NAB would have concluded the investigation if politicians were involved in the sale,” Mian Abdul Manan of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said.
Case history
Pakistan’s old chancery and embassy residence in Tokyo was sold for ¥6.32 billion. An inter-ministerial committee (IMC) comprising the then special secretary of the foreign ministry, the housing ministry secretary, the financial adviser of the finance ministry and the joint secretary of the planning and development ministry cleared the deal.
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A PAC subcommittee in 2010 found out that the evaluation company was chosen without advertisement. A year earlier, Amjad Iqbal Janjua, the self-proclaimed president of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan chapter in Japan filed a petition in the court, alleging that then ambassador Kamran Niaz and embassy staff received kickbacks.
In February 2002, Pakistan’s ambassador to Indonesia sold the chancery building for just $1.32 million. Auditors observed that the property was sold in a non-transparent manner without advertisement for competitive bidding. The envoy entered a binding sale agreement with the buyer without approval of the committee constituted to approve the sale, purchase and construction of properties abroad.
An inquiry committee in 2002 also established violation of the rules and laid down procedures. However, then president Musharraf condoned the irregularity in May of that year. A PAC subcommittee had found that the Jakarta embassy was sold by the ambassador despite repeated warnings by the FO not to do so without the approval of the competent authority.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 8th, 2016.
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