PM's inquiry commission seeks details of royal spending by former rulers

LAHORE: The high-powered commission formed over directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan summoned records of royal spending from the national exchequer by the former rulers, ARY News reported on Saturday.

The recent investigation will apparently increase troubles of former president Asif Ali Zardari and ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif as the probe commission established to review usage of loans’ money sought details of government expenditures for the last 10 years from 2008 to 2018.

Furthermore, the concerned authorities have been asked to provide details of the former heads of state’s foreign tours and illegal camp officers and misusage of state-owned aircraft.

The commission asked federal ministries and divisions to send compiled records at earliest. Sources said that the revelations of misusage of public funds were made in the previous session of the federal cabinet. It was also exposed that a larger portion of the funds was spent on security, private residences and illegal camp offices of the former rulers.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced to establish a high-powered commission under his supervision to find out facts behind soaring of loans to Rs24,000 billion in last 10 years on June 11.

As per the PM’s announcement, the commission will be comprised of officials from Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

On July 3, Prime Minister’s debt inquiry commission had received its first case to probe against Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Ahsan Iqbal.

Later, the high-powered debt probe commission had received a new case against the Pakistan Peoples Party related to financial irregularities during the PPP tenure, which had been sent by the National Highway Authority (NHA) on July 4.