ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on Friday issued a show-cause notice to Auditor General of Pakistan Buland Akhtar Rana to file a reply within 14 days on allegations of corruption against him by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The National Assembly had filed a complaint after a recommendation by the sub-committee of the PAC for disqualification of Rana as auditor general.
It is for the first time in the history of Pakistan that a complaint has been filed in the SJC which seeks the AGP's disqualification.
The PAC in August had constituted a sub-committee to probe the allegations against Rana. The committee discovered that there was truth to the allegations and recommended that a reference be filed for his disqualification under the Article 209 (5) read with Article 168 (5) of the Constitution.
Chairman PAC, Khursheed Shah had presented the fact-finding report in the NA on August 11.
The report revealed how the AGP had withdrawn Rs4.62 million from the exchequer on account of excess salary and privileges in violation of standard rules and regulations.
The findings added that Rana was getting 20 per cent additional salary in comparison with a Grade 22 officer, and under the monetisation policy, he availed more than Rs3.1 million between January and March 2014.
It said that matters of revised pay slip and provisional payments to the AGP were deliberately kept hidden for attaining particular financial benefits.
The committee also recommended recovering an amount of Rs4.62 million from Rana.
The fact finding report also said that during the course of proceedings of the committee, several complaints were received in the PAC wing against the AGP that includes his Canadian nationality and passport without obtaining prior approval of the government; foreign visits without lawful permissions; possession of four different passports: three Pakistani and one Canadian, and availing long periods of leave to complete the residence requirements in Canada for immigration purposes, among other alleged abuses of power.
However, after the inquiry, Rana challenged the authority of Parliament, thus refusing to attend the PAC meetings. He even restricted its staff to attend the meetings of Parliament’s Oversight Committee of Accountability.
Supreme Judicial Council
In view of the Article 209 of the Constitution, the SJC comprises the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP), two senior most judges of the Supreme Court, and two most senior chief justices of high courts.
The main function of the council is to hear the complaints against superior court judges, as well as other top government functionaries such as the NAB chairman, Election Commission of Pakistan’ s members, AGP etc. The proceedings of the SJC remain in-camera, whereas the SC registrar performs the function of secretary to the Council.
The last time the Council met was during the proceedings against former CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary; however, a larger bench of the apex court was later constituted to hear the reference filed against him by the PML-Q led federal government.
COMMENTS (4)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
This Auditor General has destroyed the dignity of Audit Department. Unfortunate that PPP promotes such characters
The light handed action against corruption is a prime cause of the crumbling state. If facts have been found about misappropriation of funds by the accountant general, then the sacking should have been automatic and the case filed should instead be for incarceration and stripping of all honours of the accountant general.
There must be a scrutiny of all grade 17 and above officers regarding nationalities. Record of their foreign trips be kept by intelligence agencies. They should be questioned about the reasons of these trips .
....and this is what the PML-N calls good governance.