Sherry Rehman, Information Secretary, Pakistan Peoples Party has expressed concern over the mysterious fire at the Service Branch of Public Accounts Committee at the National Assembly building on Tuesday night. In a statement issued on Wednesday, she said that the fire destroyed important records present at the PAC office.
"This is the second incident of fire at the National Assembly. The same section of the NA building caught fire in 1994, burning important records of the National Assembly", Sherry said.
She said: "The findings of the inquiry commission constituted to investigate the fire have yet to be made public. On Tuesday night, another round of fire broke out at the fourth floor of the NA building, burning to ashes many important records stored at the service branch of the PAC. The fire was put out after one and a half hour."
"It is rather curious that the only victim of any fire at the government building has to be the government records. A fire at the PAC office during the non-working hours at a time when the country is bracing for elections raises many questions. The authorities have been trying to cover the matter forwarding the usual excuse of short circuit. It is said that an air conditioner inside a room caught fire, which spread to the adjacent rooms,' she said.
"How can an air conditioner be left on when the office staff was supposed to have left three hours earlier?. The PAC records hold immense national importance as they are used as reference points in the National Assembly debates. The fire damaged 10 years old important records of the PAC, while the current regime has been running the country for eight years," she said.
"This looks like a sure-shot way of ensuring that there is no record available to be used as the basis to judge the performance of the public bodies and hence the regime, as the political parties prepare for next polls," She said.
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