ISLAMABAD  - Public Accounts Committee Chairman Khursheed Shah on Wednesday demanded Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and NAB Chairman Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal to take suo motu notice over the matter related to the sale of KASB bank at Rs1,000.

The PAC chaired by Syed Khursheed Shah reviewed the audit objections of the Ministry of Finance for 2016.

The committee was informed that the State Bank had sold the KASB Bank at Rs1,000 to a private bank. They said that Ministry of Finance had not come up with any response on this important matter. Whereas, the State Bank officials told the committee that four parties were involved in the deal of sale.

Taking serious notice of the situation, the Chairman PAC expressed displeasure for not selling the bank at appropriate price. He also demanded the Chairman NAB and Chief Justice to take notice of the matter.

PPP Lawmaker Naveed Qamar said that PIA and Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) were also running in loss. “Will these national entities be also sold at throwaway prices,” Qamar questioned. The Sindh High Court (SHC) had declared the KASB bank deal as wrong, he said.

The audit officials informed that a private bank was granted a loan of Rs20 billion on reduced interest rate. The private bank was granted the loan on low mark-up of 4.7 per cent instead of 7 per cent mark-up which caused a loss to national exchequer, they said. About development projects, the chairman said that some ministries have surrendered 25 per cent budget every year. “Surrendering a huge budget is a failure of the strategy,” he commented.

He said the development budget for different projects of the country was unsatisfactory. “Although the country has no proper road infrastructure, schools, hospitals and safe drinking water, 25 per cent budget has been surrendered,” he said.

Secretary Ministry of Finance said despite surrendering huge budget by the ministries, the budget deficit is running into trillions.