Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to arm PAC with suo motu powers

The provincial legislature of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) would make legislation to arm the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) with initiating suo motu proceedings in cases of financial corruption. This was stated by KP Assembly Speaker and chairman of PAC Kiramatullah Khan while talking to a delegation of the anti-corruption team of the Department of International Development (DFID), United Kingdom, which called on him under the leadership of Phil Mason.
He said that the purpose of the legislation is to cleanse the society of corruption and spend the public money only on people's welfare-oriented schemes. Other members of PAC including Abdul Akbar Khan, Zamin Khan advocate, Saqibullah Khan Chamkani, secretary provincial assembly, Amanullah Khan and officials of the PAC cell were also present on the occasion.
He said that the government is working on all levels to cleanse the province of the menace of corruption. The speaker told the delegation the provincial assembly has constituted a special committee on the Revenue Department, which will present its report within a period of 15 days to the assembly.
The Speaker said that the Public Accounts Committee had exhibited unprecedented good performance through disposing of audit objections on the three years audit reports of 2003-04 to 2008-09. Kiramat said that he would contact the Auditor General of Pakistan to agree him for conducting performance audit beside financial audit of the public sector institutions.
He said that the only solution to root out corruption is to equip the nation with quality modern education. Therefore, the government beside the secondary education has initiated work on the technical education and teachers training to create awareness in the nation in the establishment of corruption society. He said that the government has established accountability and anti-graft agencies for the abolition of corruption to prevent wastage of national exchequer in any circumstance.
The speaker proposed to the delegation that imparting proper training to the members and staff of the public accounts committee would further improve the performance of the committee and the outstanding 4500 audit paras would also be disposed of soon. The head of the delegation assured full financial and technical assistance in bringing further improvement in the performance of the PAC of KP, adding that another meeting in this regard would be held shortly. Later, the Speaker presented shields to the members of the delegation.