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Pakistan Senate panel calls ex-PM Aziz over fund irregularities
A Pakistan Senate panel on Saturday summoned former prime minister Shaukat Aziz to explain "massive" financial irregularities in a welfare project during his tenure.
- By Shahid Hussain, Correspondent
- Published: 23:05 July 19, 2008
Islamabad: A Pakistan Senate panel on Saturday summoned former prime minister Shaukat Aziz to explain "massive" financial irregularities in a welfare project during his tenure.
The social welfare committee of the Upper House asked Aziz - now living abroad - to appear before it on August 23, officials said.
Aziz, who kept the finance portfolio with him, left the country before the February general election in which the former ruling party was ousted.
The Senate panel examined an official audit report about the project launched by the social welfare ministry in 2002 to provide daily meals to 530,000 rural girl students of primary schools for 54 months.
The initial cost of the project was Rs36 million (Dh1.8 million), but the expenditure exceeded Rs600 million in the following years till the scheme was suspended in 2007.
According to the audit report discussed by the Senate panel an amount of Rs3.6 million out of the funds was utilised for provision of mineral water to the then social welfare minister during nine months in 2007.
Numbers
Another glaring anomaly pinpointed in the report was that the initial Rs5,000 monthly salary of a female candidate appointed to a project post was enhanced to Rs49,000 within months.
Later the employee was paid advance salaries by the ministry amounting to Rs7.3 million and she then quit the job, the report said.
The audit report also shows a string of other financial irregularities during the execution of the project.
The panel has also summoned former social welfare minister Zobaida Jalal and a number of senior officials.
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