In Pakistan, committee cancels meeting over foreign secretary’s absence
Pakistan’s Parliament Public Accounts Committee cancelled a meeting in Islamabad that was to consider audit observations concerning the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The reason was the absence of Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch, who is also the ministry’s principal accounting officer.
As Dawn reports, a ministry representative explained Baloch’s absence by her participation in a meeting at the prime minister’s office. Members of parliament Hina Rabbani Khar and Naveed Qamar criticized this, stating that the principal accounting officer should have obtained formal exemption from another event to attend the committee meeting.
Criticism over the cancellation of the meeting
Hina Rabbani Khar drew the Foreign Ministry representatives’ attention to the expenses incurred by participants who had arrived for the meeting. She called for taking into account the number of those present, as well as the money spent on air tickets and fuel.
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According to Khar, Amna Baloch also missed a meeting of the National Assembly’s standing committee on foreign affairs held on the same day.
Letter to the prime minister
Khar and Qamar instructed the meeting secretary to prepare a letter to the prime minister recommending that principal accounting officers be excused from other official events so that they can attend meetings of the Public Accounts Committee.
Senator Saleem Mandviwalla said that a similar appeal had already been sent to the prime minister’s office. The cancelled meeting was to consider audit observations regarding possible losses to the public treasury linked to fraudulent withdrawals of funds, misappropriation of public money, improper expenditures, and the purchase of vehicles during a ban. Some cases involved amounts of hundreds of thousands of dollars and euros.
