ISLAMABAD – The Auditor General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) has noted that no one, be it the prime minister or the chief minister or anyone else, can put his/her picture on advertisement of schemes, wherever public funds have been used, and instructed all its directorate generals to raise audit objection in case of any violation.
In a directives issued to 30 Directorate General Audit across the country, the Auditor General of Pakistan has issued clear instructions to raise audit observations to any such act of putting the pictures on schemes funded from the public exchequer, official source told The Nation.
The source said that the office of the Auditor General has noted that no one, be it the prime minister or the chief minister or anyone else, can put his/her picture on advertisement of schemes, wherever public funds have been used, and instructed all its directorate generals to raise audit objection in case of any violation.
While sharing the copy of Orders of Supreme Court of Pakistan in Civil Petition No. 4737 of 2018 regarding Deputy Administrator Evacuee Trust Property, Rawalpindi vs Sakhi Muhammad Kiary, on the subject Para-13 of the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan has directed that “To Name public/government properties and anything planned developed and/or managed from public government/funds or to project oneself, as in the present case by getting one’s photograph affixed on the sanads, violates the constitution, undermines Pakistan’s Islamic moorings is without lawful authority, and, if one may add, is also in bad taste. Public/government properties, documents on funds must be used in transparent manner and by observing the prescribed standards of financial propriety and must also be compliant with the mandate of the Constitution and the laws.”
The Auditor General of Pakistan has directed all the Directorate Generals above the Supreme Court viewpoint during audit and raised audit observation where violation to the above is pointed out during audit. When asked why it took too long for the Auditor General office to issue such instructions, almost after six years of the court directives, an official of the AGPR said that the sitting Auditor General is very sensitive about the use of public funds.
When asked whether the instructions will apply to Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) where Benazir Bhutto’s picture is being printed, the source said that it doesn’t apply to it.
It is a logo of the programme not a picture for promoting political interest at the expense of public exchequer, the official argued.
