Akhtar Buland Rana finally takes oath as AGP

ISLAMABAD: After the Presidency declared him a right man for the post; Akhtar Buland Rana Saturday has taken the oath as Auditor General of Pakistan.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry administered the oath of office to newly appointed auditor general during a special ceremony held at Supreme Court auditorium.

However, the Supreme Court’s Registrar read out the court’s reservations to Mr Rana’s appointment before the oath was administered.

According to a private television channel, the presidency had submitted a written reply late on Friday to a letter written by Chief Justice Iftikhar regarding the nomination of Mr Rana to the office. Before administrating the oath, Chief Justice Iftikhar accepted the appointment of Mr Rana.

Earlier, the Chief Justice of Pakistan in his letter to President Zardari had expressed reservations over appointment of Buland Akhtar Rana as the Auditor General.

The letter alleged that Rana obtained a Canadian nationality without seeking prior permission from the government and travels abroad on three Pakistani passports and two national identification cards. It included that Rana attempted sexual assault on a subordinate woman during service and also pointed out that he did not qualify for his promotion to grade-22.

The chief justice had asked the President to explain in writing how could such an individual be appointed on such an important position because once appointed, he cannot be removed - a stipulation in the Constitution (Article 209).

While, President Asif Ali Zardari rejecting the accusations against Akhtar Buland Rana, responded to the Chief Justice letter and said that Rana is an appropriate choice for the post and accusations against him were never proven correct.

He is the senior most officer of the audit department and according to service rules; his dual nationality can’t be considered a hamper while the accusation of holding fake national identity card was also proved wrong.

In his letter to the CJP, the president said that on the principle of seniority Rana’s appointment was justified. There are no allegations of corruption on Rana and his possession of dual nationality is no hurdle in his appointment, the letter says, adding that the accusation of having more than one national identity card has not been proved.

The President also said all legal requirements have been meted out for Rana’s appointment. The dual citizenship of Rana did not hinder his appointment.

The chief justice accepted the reply of the president and administered oath to the new Auditor General at Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court Registrar prior the administrating the oath said chief justice wrote the letter to the president after the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) sent their reports on Rana’s credentials.

He said the CJP had sought report on an anonymous application sent to the HR cell of the Supreme Court. The CJP had also stated in his letter that he will administer oath to Rana if the president insisted upon his appointment.

The Registrar said the CJP had also told the president that once appointed, Rana could only be removed by the Supreme Judicial Council under Article 109 as in the case of a judge of superior judiciary.

Rana was appointed as the new auditor general by President Zardari on August 23 on Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s advice and the chief justice was approached for administering oath to the new auditor general. However, CJP raised several objections against Rana in his letter citing seven charges against him.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani promoted Rana to grade-22 so he could qualify to be the auditor general of Pakistan after the former Auditor General Tanvir Ali Agha resigned amid a controversy.

It may be pertinent to mention here that, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali also objected to Rana’s appointment, stating government was trying to steer clear of its financial irregularities by appointing him.

Later taking to journalists after the ceremony, Rana said he was willing to face any legal proceedings while referring to the statement linking the oath to "all just exceptions. He said that he had been exonerated of the charge of sexually assaulting a colleague.

He said dual nationality was in no way obstructing his appointment as the auditor general.

Copyright PPI (Pakistan Press International), 2011