ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court (SC) has directed the Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) that no payment is to be made to the media and advertising agencies from the secret fund.
A 3-member bench of SC presided over by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja heard the secret fund case on Thursday. The court also directed AGPR to make payments of all the outstanding dues and bills to media houses as per law except the summaries approved on March 15 and March 19 during the last days of PPP government. Bills wherein legal and constitutional objections are involved with regard to their payment should be dealt with in conformity with law, the court further ordered.
Justice Jawwad S Khawaja remarked “notices have been issued again to the institutions which are not ready to audit their accounts under AGPR. Secret funds can be audited or otherwise, this will be decided finally on July 8”. Counsel for APNS Azhar Siddique and AGPR Tahir Mehmud appeared in the court. The court was told by the AGPR that one advertising agency has been blacklisted with reference to payment of bills as several objections had been raised on payment of bills.
The payment of two other summaries amounting to Rs 950 million and Rs 1.45 billion has been stopped. It can take 30 days to audit these summaries. Nineteen government departments are presenting their matters for audit now. “We are authorised to audit all funds except secret funds of IB and ISI and we are doing it. Government has abolished secret funds of several institutions,” remarked the AGPR. The hearing of the case has been adjourned till July 30. – DailyTimes
