After months of deadlock over the Supreme Court registrar’s refusal to appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the parliamentary watchdog has referred the matter to the National Assembly – a move that could reignite tensions between the executive and the judiciary.
The PAC, which has bipartisan support, took the unanimous decision behind closed doors on Tuesday after the apex court registrar, Dr Faqir Hussain, snubbed the panel in an earlier public statement and refused to appear for scrutiny of the court’s accounts.
The committee is to table a special report on the Supreme Court in the National Assembly today (Wednesday) with a request to either convene a joint session of parliament or a special session of the lower house to take a decision over what action to take at the earliest, PAC Chairperson Nadeem Afzal Chan said while addressing a press conference.
Till 2005, the registrar used to appear before the PAC – a practice discontinued since then. The committee has been urging the Supreme Court to review its decision since 2008. Eminent jurists and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) have also supported the PAC’s stance and have urged the apex court to change its stance which, they say, is in violation of the Constitution.
Chan said the Constitution binds the registrar to appear before the PAC and that there was consensus in both civil society and media that the PAC was well within its limits to demand his presence. The PAC chairman said it would be up to parliament to decide whether a reference should be filed against Hussain and whether the Constitution or relevant laws should be amended to exempt the court from audit or contempt of Parliament.
“The PAC also discussed the option of issuing warrants for the registrar but took a lenient view and dropped the possibility out of respect for the judiciary,” Chan said.
The PAC made it clear that it did not want to discuss the conduct of judges, saying it was unrelated to the appearance of the registrar before the committee. Chan said it is the registrar who is responsible for ensuring the transparent and prudent use of taxpayers’ money, not the judges.
Due to the apex court’s refusal to allow Hussain to appear before the PAC, grants worth billions of rupees, approved by parliament over the last one decade, are pending for settlement before the PAC. The auditors have highlighted various instances of mismanagement, including excessive budget utilisation, and even excessive saving.
The Supreme Court is of the view that since its allocations are made out of the Federal Consolidated Fund, they cannot be discussed by the PAC. Chan maintains that the PAC cannot exempt the court from audit because then other departments like the Presidency, Senate, National Assembly, Election Commission of Pakistan and Auditor General of Pakistan would also claim exemptions. These departments also receive their budget allocation from the Federal Consolidated Fund.
Chan emphasised that every institution is funded by taxpayers and that taxpayers have given the mandate of ensuring transparent use of their money to Parliament. The PAC chairperson added that after the 18th amendment, no institution can claim immunity from audit.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 19th, 2012.
COMMENTS (15)
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when is the contempt of court notice coming against PAC. ???
No one is above the Law. Now how low is the Law is another matter.
very strange to see people are advocating registrar of SC, simply why he is not appearing if he is clean
@ muhammad uasin
Correct for argument sake. But don't make a comparison of Pakistan,s parliament with the parliaments of USA UK and India as the parliamentarians in these real democracies do not conceal their incomes for evading personal and corporate income tax, whereas our parliamentarians do not even bother to file their tax returns.
The Federal Government receipts are divided into Federal Consolidated Fund (state income - loans, interest income etc) and Public Money (taxes, other public receipts) head under article 78. SC funds are allocated from Federal Consolidate Fund not from Public Money. This amount is presented as part of budget document but not put up for vote of approval. Therefore, conclusively SC budget is not from Public Money nor it is approved by national assembly. Its audit is done by Audit General office. Therefore, Public Accounts Committee does not have any mandate to call the registrar of supreme court.
The auditor general of Pakistan is the cinsitutional head to carry out audits of the dapartments and the observations of auditor general i.e advance paras are discussed in the PAC. PAC is not supposed to carry out audit of departments.Secondly these incompetent,uneducated, dishonest and holders of fake degrees can not even see the audit reports.I advise chairman PAC to complete/carry out audit of his late father as a precedent who recieved bank loans and later got written off during tenure of Late Gen. Zia ul Haq.
The SC registrar must understand that ' what is good for the goose is good for the gander '.
Why this bald guy has only SC registrar insight for accountability ? As if he has no idea what PIA means or what Pakistan Railway stands for or whose son in law was posted in World Bank ? No body is against accountability of SC financial stuff, but there is a certain malice in the conduct of this committee.
My dear Judges, making accountable everyone else while refusing to be accountable yourself simultaneously isn't Justice. We are against absolute power because it simply corrupts.
When would these elected leaders understand that the judges and generals are exempt from an financial oversight by the people. These unelected paid govt servants give themselves extensions at will, appoint their own cronies and are exempt from following all rules and constitution. Even the registrar, their sons, and their pets are exempt from the laws. No wonder they constantly aid and abet in high treason and abrogation of constitution at will. BTW the name of SC registrar has been changed from Dr. Faqeer to Dr. Ameer now!
Surely the Supreme Court registrar and its judges have nothing to hide about how they spend public money?
Please complete your term in Parliament and leave this unfortunate Country alone. We have had enough of Democracy and of the Old Autocrats.