ISLAMABAD: As exorbitant electricity bills have made life of the common man miserable, a top parliamentary watchdog, on Thursday, directed the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) to hold a thorough probe into faulty meter reading by the power distribution companies.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which met here with its chairman Rana Tanveer in the chair, came down hard on the Power Ministry for its “inability, incompetence, and callousness” for burdening the masses with heavy electricity bills.

He said that the Power Ministry is fleecing the people with heavy electricity bills, which should be stopped immediately, adding, instead of giving relief to the people, they are sending hefty power bills, which is not acceptable.

He directed the audit officials to investigate the issue as to why the power distribution companies could send such heft electricity bills to consumers, despite, load-shedding in most parts of the country.

Later, the committee called off the meeting in protest after director general Pakistan Post did not turn up in the meeting on the pretext of some other engagements.

The additional director general of Pakistan Post Hassan Akhtar said that the DG has gone to Karachi to attend an important meeting pertaining to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

However, the committee members were not ready to listen and some of the members even proposed strict punishment for the DG, saying millions of rupees are spent on the meeting but the baboos simply do not care about the hard-earned money of the taxpayers.

They said that all the expenditure incurred in today’s meeting should be recovered from the DG Pakistan Post for not paying any heed to an important meeting.

The committee declared that any further negligence on part of the baboos with regard to skipping an important meeting of the PAC, would not be tolerated, adding the committee will take strict action against officials “habitual” of skipping the meetings.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021