Notice to Punjab in 56 companies case

LAHORE :Lahore High Court Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on Wednesday issued a notice to the Punjab government on a petition challenging establishment of Punjab Saaf Pani Company as well as 55 other public companies and alleged corruption of Rs 80 billions

The chief justice directed the government to explain as to what was the need for establishing 56 companies in presence of the local government system. He directed the government to justify why these companies were set up from public fund and its employees were paid hefty salaries and other perks and privileges.

The chief justice also directed the government to reply who was conducting audit of these companies and what was the use of these companies’ funds. He remarked that the 56 companies were using the public funds and its use and utility should also be made public.

Earlier, petitioner counsel Muhammad Azhar Siddique argued that Punjab government had established over 56 public sector companies some nine years ago on the pretext of good governance. He said that over Rs 150 billions were spent on them from the exchequer.

He submitted that this model of governance was the brainchild of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif who was impressed by the Turkish model of governance and followed it here in the province. He said that it was the reason that Turkish people were hired as consultants in various companies and now they had been working on various mega projects. He said that the Punjab government’s expedition of forming companies had faced a huge setback as all these public sector companies had failed to perform their duties.

He said that these companies had expenditures of Rs 250 billion but no audit of these companies was carried out except one for performance audit by the auditor general of Pakistan. He said that even these companies were not sharing their expense details with Punjab Finance Department and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.

He alleged that even these companies never published any annual audit report while officials of these companies had been drawing huge salaries besides many other perks and privileges. He submitted that that there was no record of Lahore, Faisalabad and Gujranwala’s waste management companies.

He alleged that Al-Bayrak and Ozbak, Turkish companies, were awarded contracts by the provincial government in violation of merit. He claimed that the public money was being wasted on these companies. He requested the court to set aside the public sector companies for being in violation of the constitution.

The respondents in the petition included 56 companies besides the federal government, President of Pakistan Office, Prime Minister Office, Punjab governor, Punjab government, Chief Minister Office, NAB, FIA, Anti-Corruption Establishment, Auditor General of Pakistan and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.