MUZAFFARABAD, June 15: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) chapter of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has demanded of its party’s government in Islamabad to conduct special audit of the AJK Council to bring into open “rampant corruption in this institution at the hands of its in-charge federal ministers and bureaucrats.”
The demand came from PML-N AJK chapter president Raja Farooq Haider at a function held here on Saturday, to mark the joining of PML-N by Chaudhry Abdur Rasheed, a Muslim Conference leader from Neelum Valley, along with his companions. It was also addressed by PML-N AJK secretary general Shah Ghulam Qadir.
“We call upon Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif and Federal Minister for Kashmir affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Birjees Tahir to conduct special performance audit of the AJK Council since 2006 to expose the plunder of our resources in this institution and bring the culprits to justice,” said Mr Haider.
The AJK Council, it may be recalled, was established under the Interim Constitution Act 1974 apparently “to serve as a bridge between the governments in Muzaffarabad and Islamabad.”
The main income source of Council, which is vested with legislative, executive and financial powers, is 20 per cent of the taxes generated from the AJK territory, which it claims it spends on the administrative expenditure of its secretariat in Islamabad, development activities (in Pakistan and AJK) and other miscellaneous heads.
However, it is widely believed in AJK that this institution has not only turned itself into a parallel government and taxpayers’ money is largely being misused by its in-charge federal ministers and federal bureaucrats.
Ever since its inception, the AJK Council has evaded scrutiny of its expenditures by any investigating or accounting body of Pakistan or AJK.
Mr. Haider said he had no qualms about the fact that an impartial audit of AJK Council would surprise the whole nation, “because the amount embezzled with impunity was much more than many huge fiscal scams of Pakistan.”
He particularly came down upon the former federal Kashmir Affairs minister Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, accusing him of badly misusing the AJK Council resources.
Mr Haider demanded that the audit should not be held from 2008 – when the PPP assumed office in Pakistan – but from 2006 because that period had also seen huge and largely unnoticed corruption in the Council.
“It’s our money which has been mercilessly spent without following any formalities and we want to see it recovered without further ado,” he said.
It may also be mentioned here that early last year the then AJK Ehtesab Bureau chairman, Justice Hussain Mazhar Kaleem, had dared summon record of some dubious contracts from the AJK Council in the wake of corruption complaints.
However, the Council officials had not complied with his orders, claiming that their institution did not fall under the purview of the AJK Ehtesab Bureau Act.
Later, in August (2012) Mr Kaleem was removed from that position by the AJK government allegedly under the pressure of vested interests.
Mr Haider said the AJK Ehtesab Bureau Act was applicable to the AJK Council and he fully supported investigations by the bureau into the large-scale corruption in the Council.