COAS to be informed about FWO officials’ absence from PAC

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday decided to inform chief of army staff (COAS) about the non-participation of Frontier Works Organization (FWO) officials in its meeting and summoned the director general of the military’s engineering organization and defence secretary on June 23.

The PAC is a forum which examines the government accounts showing the appropriation of funds granted by the National Assembly, the auditor general of Pakistan’s report and other such matters as the finance minister may refer to it.

The committee, which met under the chairmanship of Noor Alam Khan, decided to write a letter to the defence secretary to apprise him about the absence of DG FWO from its meeting.

Chairman Khan said the defence secretary should tell the COAS that the FWO officials do not attend PAC meetings. PAC is working for transparency and to save the nation’s money but these officials do not care, he said.

The panel summoned DG FWO and defence secretary on June 23 while delaying the approval of three audit objections regarding the military’s engineering organization.

During the meeting, the committee chairman asked why Hakla-Dera Ismail Khan Motorway was in a worsening condition when it had recently been constructed.

Senator Talha Mehmood while referring to the National Highway Authority asked how many accidents had occurred on Hakla-DI Khan Motorway and that how many people died as a result of.

While reviewing the performance of the Pakistan Post, the body asked why the President House, PM Secretariat and the government institutions did not use the state enterprise for mail purposes.

Later, while addressing the media, the committee chairman clarified that the purpose of writing letter to the defence secretary was not to ridicule any institution but to seek transparency.

He said the PAC had issued directives that all government documents be dispatched through the Pakistan Post.