The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has expressed serious concern over alleged large-scale financial irregularities in Kohistan, directing an internal inquiry to be completed within three days.
The directive was issued during a committee meeting chaired by KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, and attended by officials from the Finance Department, Communication and Works (C&W) Department, and the Accountant General’s Office.
During the session, details of the alleged scandal were presented, prompting Speaker Swati to remark, “This does not look like a Rs36 billion scandal—it appears to be worth Rs200 billion. All relevant departments seem equally complicit in this corruption, and each institution appears eager to claim its share.”
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The Speaker called for the immediate suspension of all officials found involved in the scandal, warning that failure to take swift action would turn the Assembly and its institutions into a public laughingstock. “The public must be made aware of the extent of corruption within these departments, and this must stop now,” he emphasized.
Opposition members added fuel to the fire by revealing that massive embezzlement had taken place in Kohistan through fake construction companies and thousands of cheques, without the presence of an actual development budget. They claimed that individuals from outside Kohistan were also part of the fraud, stressing the need for the inquiry to investigate the background of all financial transactions involved.
The committee instructed all concerned departments to submit detailed reports in the next session so that legal proceedings could be initiated against those responsible.
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