PTI leader seeks details of govt expenses

Interior minister asked about security, protocol cost

ISLAMABAD: A PTI leader asked the interior minister on Sunday to provide details of expenditures amounting to Rs21.8 million allegedly incurred on providing security to members of the Sharif family during their appearances before the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in the Panamagate case.

These and other details were sought from Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal in a letter sent by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Andleeb Abbas under the Freedom of Information Ordinance, 2002.

She also sought certified information about the award of a contract worth almost half a billion rupees to the minister’s brother even when his firm was ‘technically unfit’ to execute the project.

The contract, worth Rs448 million, for landscaping and horticulture works along the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Project was awarded to Mustafa Kamal, the owner of the Horti Group.



Iqbal was serving as the minister for planning at the time of the award of the project.

Kamal previously served as the chairman of the Punjab chief minister’s task force on parks and horticulture between September 2008 and June 2009.

He left the post after an inquiry was ordered against him in January 2009 for allegedly “using his office for advancement of his own business”.

“His firm was awarded the contract despite being technically unfit to execute it. CDA expressed concerns about deficiencies … in the landscape work along the metro bus corridor,” Abbas wrote.

Terming it a case of nepotism and corruption, she asked the interior minister to inform her within 21 days why taxpayers’ money was wasted in such a blatant manner.

Seeking details of the Rs21.8 million spent on the security and protocol of the Sharif family during their appearances before the JIT, the PTI leader said: “Misuse of public money on members of the Sharif family’s security … continues (during your tenure).”



She also mentioned the interior minister’s visit to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in London in the third week of September, besides participating in a PML-N meeting there on September 23.

“Reports suggest that public funds were used for this private visit. Kindly provide documentary evidence of your ticket and stay and sources of payments to clarify this was not another theft of taxpayers’ money.”

The PTI also wondered why federal ministers were in attendance during appearances of the Sharif family before the accountability court while they are being paid out of the national exchequer.

“On October 2, 2017 you (Iqbal) also neglected your duties to accompany an accused, facing a graft case in the accountability court. In what capacity did you and your junior minister, Talal Chaudhry, attend the court?”



The PTI also pointed out that Advocate Khawar Ikram Bhatti, who slapped a police officer during Maryam Nawaz and Captain (retd) Mohammed Safdar’s hearing before the accountability court on October 13, was removed as Punjab's additional advocate-general because of his hooliganism.

“Bhatti was caught … assaulting a police officer. While the Punjab government punished him, why has the interior ministry not nominated him in the FIR?” the PTI leader asked.

The interior ministry, the letter concluded, was mandated to safeguard public security and not the security of the Sharif family or their loyalists.

If “a clarification is not provided in accordance with the RTI, public litigation will be filed for misuse of public office”, it said.