Web Desk (LTN NEWS): The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of parliament called Pakistan’s former Chief Justice Saqib Nisar on Tuesday to ask him about the Diamer-Bhasha Dam Fund, which was set up during his time in office.
For not being at the meeting about Malam Jabba and the Billion Tree Tsunami cases, former principal secretary Azam Khan was also given a warrant for his arrest. It told the Interior Ministry and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) that Azam could not leave the country from any airport.
Noor Alam Khan was in charge of the PAC meeting, and the Supreme Court registrar was asked to give information about the fund.
Nisar, who was CJP at the time, set up the fund in July 2018 to raise money for the Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams. The Supreme Court website specifically asked for donations to help build these reservoirs.
Later, Imran Khan, who was the prime minister at the time, also backed Justice Nisar’s call for donations.
He had asked Pakistanis living abroad to help raise money by making donations on their own time.
Ahsan Iqbal, the leader of the PML-N, said in 2019 that it was his party that brought the dead projects of the Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams back to life.
He said that the fund had collected Rs10 billion by March 2019 and that Rs13 billion had been spent on advertising.
During the PAC meeting, Barjees Tahir, an MNA from the PML-N, said that Rs14 billion was spent on ads for the fund, even though only Rs9 billion was brought in. He asked for an explanation as to why the money wasn’t used to build the dams.
The head of the committee said that Nisar was a “controversial” person and that he, too, had to answer for the dam fund case. Noor also asked Aftab Sultan, who is the head of the NAB, why the case against Malam Jabba was closed.
The head of the anti-corruption agency said that it was closed when Justice (retired) Javed Iqbal was in charge.
The head of the PAC said that Iqbal was “blackmailed,” so he asked that all of the cases closed by the former head of the NAB be looked at again.
The head of the NAB told the committee about the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), saying that a loss of Rs32.86 billion was shown as a profit of Rs26 billion.
He also said that the project cost started at Rs49 billion and went up to Rs69 billion. “Irregularities have been found in the way contracts for building the Peshawar BRT have been given out,” he said.
He said that the case was also being looked into by the Peshawar High Court. He also said that the Supreme Court gave an injunction while the NAB investigation was going on.
The head of the NAB said that the former prime minister, Imran, had used the helicopter of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government for Rs70 million. Sultan told the PAC that the NAB was making plans to get this money back.
The head of the PAC said that the helicopter users, not the K-P government, should pay for the damage. He told the head of the NAB to talk about this with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
During the PAC meeting, the case of Broadsheet was also talked about.
The NAB chairman told the panel that the Broadsheet case was filed in 2010 and was worth $3.7 million.
He also said that the case was sent to the FIA in April 2021.
At the meeting, FIA officials told the committee that NAB had refused to meet with the agency because it did not have the authority to look into the case.
They also said that the case stopped moving forward after that.
The PAC asked the FIA to give a report on the case in a month
After losing a case in the London High Court, Pakistan gave $28,706,000,000 to Broadsheet LLC.
The money was sent from the Pakistan High Commission to the assets recovery firm on behalf of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). This was done 21 years after the firm was hired to find the alleged foreign assets of dozens of Pakistanis, which it did not do.
Earlier, the head of the PAC said that information about the assets of NAB officers had been asked for.
Sultan said that the rules of the NAB were being changed. Under the new rules, the officers of the group that fights corruption would also have to list their assets, he said.
Noor said that all officers had given the Establishment Division a list of their assets.
The head of NAB said that the same method was being used to report assets. He also said that assets could only be opened if there was a question or a court order.
This led to Noor and Sultan getting into a heated argument.
The new head of the NAB also wouldn’t say what the officers in his department owned.
The head of the committee asked if you would give the papers or not.
The chairman of the NAB asked him what papers he wanted.
Noor was angry and immediately called the cabinet, the Establishment Division, the law secretary, and the IGP of Islamabad to the PAC.
Later, the head of the NAB said that the details of the reports that the anti-corruption group’s officers sent to the Federal Board of
Also, the Federal Budget Revenue (FBR) would be sent to the PAC. After that, the matter was dropped.
