PAC to call SBP governor over dollar hoarding

ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday decided to summon Governor State Bank of Pakistan Jamil Ahmed over hoarding of dollars.

PAC Chairman Noor Alam Khan remarked that instead of crackdown on the dealers involved in hoarding of dollars, the SBP governor was holding negotiations with forex companies.

The PAC examined paras related to the Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division for 2019-20.

Noor expressed concern over the presence of Afghan refugees in Police Lines Red Zone. He asked the auditor general of Pakistan for the audit of recruitments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without advertisements. He regretted the slow pace of National Accountability Bureau investigations into cases referred by the PAC on mega corruption scams of the KP government, BRT Peshawar, Billion Tree Tsunami, Malam Jabba and Khyber Bank. He asked the NAB to investigate assets of former KP ministers and said the FIA was working better than the NAB. Audit officials told the committee about the verification of beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme. The BISP secretary told the committee that steps were being taken to prevent fraud in the BISP and it had been decided to open bank accounts of beneficiaries. Noor also asked the auditor general of Pakistan to audit the health card.