PAC refuses to back down from discussing Broadsheet

Chairman Hussain says NA speaker has no jurisdiction to object

ISLAMABAD:

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the National Assembly speaker on Thursday locked horns over the alleged wrongdoings in payments to Broadsheet Company amid speaker’s instructions not to take up the case in parliament’s accountability arm.

A PAC member, on the condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that PAC decided to take up the issue with Speaker Asad Qaiser through the office of the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs, Amir Dogar.

“The PAC chairman is going to see the speaker through good offices of Amir Dogar,” the member said, adding that the speaker had objected to holding discussion on Broadsheet saga in PAC.

To a question about what decision was made after the discussion, the PAC member said, “All members rallied to support the PAC chairman and he is going to see the speaker in this regard.”

On Thursday, PAC held an in-camera session for roughly an hour and discussed the speaker’s objection, among other issues. During the meeting, the PAC chairman said that the speaker has no jurisdiction and the PAC chairman can decide about the agenda.

Broadsheet LLC arbitration decision came in 2016 – the same year when the Panama Papers had jolted Pakistan. However, nobody knew about it until a court in the United Kingdom ordered authorities to deduct $28.7 million from Pakistan High Commission’s account in London.

The Broadsheet LLC was incorporated in the Isle of Man to help President Pervez Musharraf's government and the newly established NAB to track down foreign assets purchased by Pakistanis through ill-gotten wealth. After NAB terminated the contract in 2003, Broadsheet and another company involved as a third party filed for damages in a UK court.

It claimed that Pakistan owed them money according to the terms agreed upon since the government was taking action to confiscate some of the assets they had identified, including the Avenfield property owned by the Sharif family. The companies' claims against Pakistan were held valid by the arbitration court and later by a UK high court that gave an award of over $28 million against Pakistan last year.

Earlier, on January 15, a private TV channel had reported that PAC took notice of the Broadsheet saga, directed the auditor general of Pakistan (AGP) for complete investigations into the matter and sought reports from the AGP and NAB regarding Broadsheet scandal by January 19.

The report added that PAC also directed NAB and the AGP to declare what sort of an agreement was signed with the company and how much was paid to it.

In addition to the Broadsheet issue, sources said that the in-camera meeting discussed about the cabinet’s allegation of corruption in AGP. Commenting on the issue of the “audit paras being deleted with connivance of AGP and lawmakers through bribes”, a PAC source revealed, the cabinet secretary has written to the PAC chairman and denied the allegation.

Subsequently, the member said, PAC issued a directive to Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz asking how such false stories based on cabinet meetings’ leaks were disseminated in the media.

Examining the audit paras of Ministry of Communications related to National Highway Authority only for the year 2019-20, PAC Chairman Rana Tanveer Hussain said that less discussion should lead to concluding the audit paras; AGP officials should also bring concise paras before PAC. “I want to see disposal,” Tanveer said.