Cabinet rejects audit report on Covid-19 spending

Cabinet rejects audit report on Covid-19 spending

• Minister Says Election Funding Could Be Linked To Use Of EVMs
• Are responsible for high raw material prices
• Leaked Ex-CJP Audio Called Conspiracy
• Fawad says the gas reserves are exhausted

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Tuesday rejected the recently published audit report, which pointed to irregularities in billions of rupees in Covid-19 spending, the vaccination process and the Ehsaas aid program.

The cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, also reiterated the obligation of the Pakistani Electoral Commission (ECP) to hold the next general election based on electronic voting machines (EVMs) in accordance with recent parliamentary legislation.

Cabinet expressed satisfaction with the 0.67 percent cut in food prices, while the media reported that consumer price index (CPI) inflation rose to over 11 percent in November.

On the question of retired judge Rana Shamim, the cabinet believed that ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had hatched a conspiracy against former Supreme Court chairman Saqib Nisar.

PrimeMinister Khan also banned cabinet members from traveling abroad to ensure austerity measures.

The cabinet rejected the audit report on Covid-19 spending and asked three relevant organizations to make their presentations, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said in a press conference after the cabinet meeting.

The report published by the Treasury Department on the federal government's spending on Covid-19 had indicated irregularities in government interventions to ensure the availability of five essential items of sugar, wheat flour, oil and ghee, pulses and rice in supply stores at subsidized prices.

Mr. Chaudhry said the Treasury Department had already rejected the audit report and the responsible Ehsaas program and PM advisor Dr. Sania Nishtar also clarified the position of her organization.

Regarding the use of EVM in the elections, he said: The cabinet is of the opinion that the EKP must hold the next parliamentary elections [2023] through the EVM according to the laws on electoral reform.

He said the cabinet has expressed reservations about videos circulating on social media showing votes being bought for the upcoming poll in Lahore.

Such illegal activity would not have come to the fore if the ECP had taken steps against the horse trade in the recent Senate election, he added.

Free and fair elections are a lifeline for a democratic system and the basis for forming a government, he said, calling on the EKP to bring the issue of voting for certain political parties in Lahore to a logical conclusion.

If elections weren't conducted through EVMs, the government might not be able to fund them, he said, adding that existing laws only legitimize elections conducted through EVMs.

The government has set up a committee on this and the Justice Department will comment on it, he added.

The minister said the electoral commission should ensure the use of EVMs in the next elections as Parliament has given the mandate to do so.

Regarding the former Gilgit-Baltistan judge, during the hearing on the matter on Tuesday, the Minister of Information said retired Judge Shamim told the court that he had not yet examined the affidavit attributed to him.

When asked if he had given it to a newspaper, the former judge had replied in court: My affidavit is sealed in a locker in the UK. I don't know how it leaked.

To end the surprising development, Mr. Chaudhry said that if the affidavit was in a locker as it got to the newspaper that originally reported it, adding that the affidavit appears to have reached the newspaper through Nawaz Sharif may be.

A campaign has been launched against the judiciary and the armed forces and we hope the court will bring the matter to a logical conclusion, he added.

According to media reports, Judge Shamim announced in an alleged affidavit that he witnessed Saqib Nisar instructing a Supreme Court judge not to release former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz in corruption cases.

Commodity prices

Federal Minister Chaudhry claimed that Pakistan had the lowest prices of all other kitchen goods in the region, consisting of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, with the exception of tea.

We are doing what we can in these times of global inflation, he noted.

The minister also announced that a record rice crop is expected this year, with a harvest of nine million tons.

He said in just a few months the cost of sugar had dropped to 60 rupees per kg, blaming the Sindh government for the price hike.

In cities like Karachi and Hyderabad, inflation is rampant. Pakistan's Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government is portrayed as inexperienced, while the party, which has ruled the province for over 30 years, has failed to contain food inflation, he added.

The upward trend of 40 percent in the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) was due to inflation in Karachi and Sindh, the minister said, adding that the price of tomatoes fell 15.4 percent, onions fell 7.4 percent and those Chicken costs fell 6.6 percent each. The price of a bag of wheat flour fell by 1 piece, he added.

The minister said a sack of flour was available in Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad for 1,100 rupees, while in Karachi, due to poor governance by the Pakistani People's Party, he was in government for 1,404 rupees and 1,443 rupees in Hyderabad (PPP).

Similarly, he said a sack of urea can be bought in the international market for 10,500 rupees per bag, while in Punjab it can be bought for 1,700 rupees.

Lack of gas

Regarding gas, which became scarce in the country with the beginning of winter, the minister warned that gas reserves in the country were running out.

And we have not discovered any new resources, he said, emphasizing the need for a strategy to address the problem of dwindling domestic gas reserves and the looming scarcity of raw materials.

He said that only 28 percent of Pakistanis would actually have gas, while the rest of the country, deprived of raw material supplies, made that small percentage possible.

Speaking to Dawn, however, Fawad Chaudhry said the prime minister had issued such instructions for no specific reason, but rather urged cabinet members at almost all meetings to take austerity measures and avoid unnecessary overseas travel.

He said the cabinet had also raised concerns about the possible spread of the new Covid-19 variant Omicron and asked provincial governments and citizens to ensure vaccination is complete.

The virus will certainly reach the country, so it is necessary to wear masks, he stressed.

Chaudhryshared other developments from the cabinet meeting, saying formalities were complete to receive $ 3 billion in safe deposits and $ 1.2 billion in oil shipments for deferred payments from Saudi Arabia.

The meeting had also agreed to limit the construction of buildings around airports and tasked the Prime Minister's Special Assistant on Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam, with formulating a long-term smog policy in Lahore.

The minister said the federal investigative body had also been asked to launch an anti-trafficking program.

Pakistan will also send 50,000 tons of wheat to Kabul and hold an extraordinary meeting of the Islamic Cooperation Organization's Foreign Ministers' Council to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, he added.