MQM lawmaker seeks PAC probe into Rs7.5bn KMC development spending

An MQM Pakistan lawmaker has asked the chairman of the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee to order an investigation into the spending of about Rs 7.5 billion on 188 development schemes of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, saying the money has not produced results the city can see.

The request is contained in a letter from Taha Ahmed Khan, the party's deputy parliamentary leader and himself a member of the committee, to PAC chairman Nisar Khuhro, Express News reported. According to the report, the letter asks that the use of the Rs 7.5 billion be investigated, that transparency be ensured in development tenders worth Rs 15 billion to Rs 16 billion in the current fiscal year, and that an inquiry into KMC's development schemes and its tendering process be conducted by the CMIT.

Khan said, according to the Express News account, that alleged irregularities and interference in development contracts should be established. He said claims that billions of rupees had been spent on development schemes were confined to paper, and that in the name of development projects the pockets of particular individuals were being filled.

He said the worst kind of corruption was being committed with the tax money of Karachi's residents, that despite the billions spent people were forced to travel on broken roads, and that the city's residents were still deprived of basic civic facilities while KMC employees were being denied pensions. Corruption and mismanagement, he said, were making conditions worse for the people of Karachi.

The Public Accounts Committee is the parliamentary body that scrutinises government expenditure and audit reports. The Express News report did not say whether Khuhro had responded to the letter, or whether the committee had taken up the matter.

The report gave no response from the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation or from the Sindh government to the allegations. It also did not set out which schemes the Rs 7.5 billion figure covers, or the period in which the spending took place.

The complaint lands in a long-running argument over how Pakistan's largest city spends its development budget. Khan's letter asks the committee to look at the tendering side as well as the expenditure side, arguing that scrutiny of contracts is where the alleged interference would show up.