Sale of diplomatic buildings: Successive govts failed to bring culprits to book

ISLAMABAD:

More than 12 years after a scandal erupted over the illegal sale of Pakistani diplomatic mission buildings in Tokyo and Jakarta, the individuals allegedly responsible for these actions and violating the rules and procedures have yet to be brought to book.

The issue echoed in the National Assembly two weeks ago when a JUI-F member asked for details of the scam that has been repeatedly discussed during different governments that seem to have turned a blind eye to the scandal.

The government had replied to MNA Naeema Kishwar that no such buildings were sold off in the era of the incumbent government. However, she had insisted she had specifically asked to have details of the scam even if it took place during other regimes.



Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had observed that the Parliamentary Affairs Secretary Sheikh Aftab was a member of the committee that probed the issue. “No action could be taken over the report as a military ruler [Pervez Musharraf] was at the helm of affairs at that time,” Aftab had told the house.

The speaker had also asked the PPP MNA Naveed Qamar if the issue could be referred to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).  Interestingly the issue has already been probed by the PAC twice.

First, it was during the PPP’s previous era when Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan – the incumbent interior minister –was the PAC chairperson that the issue was taken up. Later Khursheed Shah, the PAC current chairman and leader of opposition in the lower house, also discussed the case.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has also been looking into the matter since then but little has been done to fix responsibility.

In the year 2004-2005, Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out irregularities – including volitions of procurement rules and procedures – in sale of properties owned by the Pakistani embassies. The audit had detected irregularities, which caused a loss of Rs500 million to the government.

According to the audit, prior permission was not sought from inter-ministerial committee as per the required procedure nor was any advertisement floated in press before the sale.

Former ambassadors in Japan and Indonesia – Kamran Niaz and Major Gen (retd) Mustafa Anwar Hussain respectively –had been denying the allegations and NAB’s initial inquiry.

Earlier this year a member of PAC, Mian Abdul Manan, had also criticised NAB for not questioning former president Pervez Musharraf for granting approval to the then ambassador to Indonesia of irregular sale of Jakarta building.

The property had been gifted by the Indonesian president to Pakistan but was sold under the pretext of a directive issued by the then chief executive, Musharraf.

Kishwar told The Express Tribune that someone from the ministry had changed the question as she had sought full details of the deals and action against them. “I had handed over a different question to the speaker,” she said, adding that the government appeared to be trying to hush up the matter.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmaker Arif Alvi commented that in PAC they had looked into the matter thoroughly and the violations were clear but nothing was going to happen.  “Everyone here gets away with whatever wrong they do,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21st,  2016.