Supreme Court and Public Accounts Committee

by Marvi Sirmed

Sharing with you this important document, which has left me shocked and extremely disappointed in the ‘wisdom’ of those who need to be the wisest. Amid all kinds of corruption allegations on politicians being pursued by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCOP), one case got special treatment by the worthiest men of this country – the graft case of Mr. Arsalan Iftikhar. Iftikhar is a 34 years old ‘innocent boy’ who was reportedly ‘lured’ into accepting a not-s-small sum of money from one Malik Riaz, the real estate tycoon who knows how to make the mare go. The innocence of Mr. Iftikhar is further proven by the fact that he happens to be the son of Chief Justice of Pakistan. The case was thus, taken up by none other than CJP himself, as a suo-moto action under Section 184(3) which allows the CJP to move the court if the case pertains to violation of fundamental rights and is of public interest. The case, definitely is of public interest and violates Mr. Iftikhar’s right to remain innocent for the rest of his life! The case, as was right thing to do, was disposed of by mildly lecturing all parties to ‘behave’.

Why is it important to recall Mr. Iftikhar? Because his was not the only case where the worthy court to be partisan for its own interest. Responding to Public Accounts Committee, the elected watch body over the Auditor General of Pakistan that called Registrar of Supreme Court to present himself before the Committee and explained some overspending by the SCOP. Guess what happens next? The wise men in SCOP, came up with a document that conveniently leaves everyone in the SCOP outside the ambit of any elected watch body that oversees the transparency of financial transaction by public institutions including SCOP. Have a lok over how the Registrar of SCOP – an official who is not a judge – exonerates himself from legislature’s scrutiny.

One wonders who is going to ensure transparency when even the most responsible institutions of this country try to evade law on the pretext of law. Ironic and sad. The language used in this document and disregard for transparency makes my wish it must not be what the worthy men in SCOP meant. Have a good reading experience please!

Supreme Court, Pakistan, Chief Justice, Arsalan Iftikhar, Auditor General, Public Accounts Committee, Parliament, Judiciary, Pakistan …..

Read more » BAAGHI

http://marvisirmed.com/2012/07/08/supreme-court-and-public-accounts-committee/

Speaking truth to power

By: Irfan Husain

AS I was researching this article, reading scores of emails and writing to friends and contacts about the reported threat to Asma Jahangir’s life, something odd happened to my Gmail screen.

Now, whenever I open my email account, a red strip appears at the top with the following announcement from Google: “Warning – We believe state-sponsored attackers may be attempting to compromise your account or computer. Protect yourself now.”

Following the link to security advice, I duly changed my password and switched to Chrome, a Google browser that’s supposed to be more secure. But so far, the problem persists. Any advice from tech-savvy readers would be welcome. I understand Google has recently taken to warning users of such attempts from intelligence agencies to hack into their accounts. ….

Read more » DAWN.COM

What a lier! Gen. Beg blames IsI for poll rigging

Asghar Khan petition: Gen Beg blames ISI for poll rigging

By Azam Khan

ISLAMABAD: Former army chief Gen Mirza Aslam Beg has blamed the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for distributing money among various politicians to rig the 1990 elections as alleged in air marshal Asghar Khan’s petition.

Maintaining his innocence, Beg submitted another statement before the Supreme Court, in which he claimed that the ISI was a separate entity from the army and was not under the command of the army chief.

Beg insisted he was not directly involved in maintaining accounts and distributing funds during 1990 elections. “…In fact, the accounts were maintained by the ISI and (Beg) only instructed then DG ISI Gen (retd) Asad Durrani to maintain accounts ….

Read more » The Express Tribune

Army Chief appears before Public Accounts Committee

PAC meet on canteen scam ends inconclusively

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meet on the canteen scam ends inconclusively. The army and the air force have divergent views from that of CAG and the PAC. PAC would hold further meetings to reconcile this.

It’s the first instance of its kin, serving chiefs have been asked to appear before PAC in connection with Canteen scam.

Army Chief General V K Singh, air chief V K Naik and naval vice chief D K Dewan met the PAC headed by senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi and with other MPs. The hearing is in connection with the alleged irregularities in the canteen stores supplies. The PAC meet was called after the CAG report pointed out irregularities in the supply chain management of rations by CSD.

General VK Singh, Army Chief, said, “I am happy to be at meeting. We made a presention on the issues raised by MPs on rations issued to soldiers.” …

Read more : The Times of India

PML-N leader Khawaja Asif is talking about the huge corruption of Pakistan army generals & across the board accountability

The language of the talk show is urdu (Hindi).

Courtesy: SAMAA TV (News Beat with Meher Bokhari)

– YouTube Link

Justice is selective in Pakistan, it should not be selective

Courtesy: GEO TV (Choraha – Hasan Nisar, Nazir Naji)

Via – ZemTV >> Link

Pakistan : COMMERCIAL AUDIT OF ACCOUNTS OF ALL NAZIMS

By Dr Ali Akbar Dhakan

The importance of audit of all accounts cannot be over emphasized and it is necessary that transparency can be got through proper audit of all expenses incurred on various schemes,projects,plans and works completed and performed by all departments like local and provincial,central and federal, private and public, autonomous and regulated organizations.