PAC Empowerment Must In Balochistan For Good Governance

Members of Balochistan Assembly, financial experts, bureaucrats, journalists and academics on Thursday stressed on the need to make the Public Accounts Committee more empowered and effective

QUETTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st Mar, 2022 ) :Members of Balochistan Assembly, financial experts, bureaucrats, journalists and academics on Thursday stressed on the need to make the Public Accounts Committee more empowered and effective.

"By making the Rules of business effective and empowering PAC, we could improve governance and discourage corruption more effectively," they said during a one-day roundtable discussion on " The Role of Parliament in Accountability and Good Governance" jointly organized by the Accountability Lab, Governance and Policy Project and Balochistan Assembly held here at Balochistan Assembly secretariat.

Public Accounts Committee Chairman Akhtar Hussain Lango, Member PAC and Provincial Minister for food Engineer Zamrak Khan Achakzai, MPA Qadir Nail, Secretary Balochistan Assembly Tahir Shah Kakar, Accountant General Balochistan Nasrullah Jan, Governance and Policy Project Strategic Communication Specialist Mehwish Saeed, Program consultant Fatima Nanghyal, retired bureaucrats, renowned journalists, teachers, students of different universities and intellectuals from different walks of lives attended the round table consultation.

Chairman Public Accounts Committee Akhtar Hussain Lango while talking to the participants said that effective accountability is essential for the establishment of good governance. "PAC's active role is the guarantee of a better system of government," he said adding that due to PACs endeavors financial corruption has been discouraged to manifold. Such forums play a key role in establishing transparency all over the world. While highlighting accounts committees' major achievement in the recent past, the PAC Balochistan Chairman said that the committee has recovered Rs. 1 billion and deposited it in the national kitty.

" Due to no proper heed to the accountability of all and non-formation of PAC in Balochistan, the decisions of 1985 are still pending and there is a big backlog. "We are determined to make PAC empowered and continue our efforts to establish good governance," he further said.

Provincial Minister for Food Engineer Zamrak Khan Achakzai and Member Balochistan Assembly Qadir Nayal on the occasion said"The role of PAC was of paramount importance for transparency and check and balance in financial affairs. They said that transparency and proper utilization of available financial resources would be possible if PAC is fully empowered." Former Secretary Finance and Financial Specialist Mehfooz Ali Khan said that the secretary of the department concerned was responsible for the financial affairs of any department.

" It is not possible to deny the existence of corruption but with the continuity of accountability the corrupt practice can be eradicated," he maintained. The Public Accounts Committee is an authoritative forum of accountability which represents the Provincial Legislative Assembly and therefore an effective mechanism of accountability must be formed to implement the decisions of PAC.

Addressing the meeting, Mahesh Saeed, Strategic Communication Specialist, Governance and Policy Project, said that opportunities were being provided to university students and people from different walks of lives for awareness about the role of PAC. Balochistan.

Program Consultant Fatima Nangyal said that today's students have to take the reins of the future so we are trying to bridge the gap between the students of government institutions and universities.

Earlier, PAC chairman gave answers to the questions raised by the students and other participants.