Government Procures a Quarter Billion Worth of Armored Vehicles for Ministers through The Backdoor

ISLAMABAD: For federal ministers of state and parliament secretaries three dozen vehicles are bought by federal government for 255 million PKR. The luxury vehicles which were bought during PPP regime are getting rust in parking area of the National Assembly and Pak Secretariat, even though these vehicles are purchased.

Supplementary grants had been provided for purchase of twenty 1300 cc vehicles, ten Land Cruisers, three 2500cc Toyota Double Cabins and two 2500cc Toyota Vigos after fulfilling cost requirements. According to the budgetary documents, there were no allocations in the budget made by Parliament in last June.

Minister of State for Religious Affairs Pir Amin Hasant, Minister of State for Communication Abdul Hakkem Baloch, Senate Deputy Chairman Maulana Ghafoor Haidri are involved as recipients of these vehicles. Vehicles of up to 1800cc are used by federal and state ministers as per rules are stated. Two 2500cc Toyota Vigos are purchased for Hakeem Baloch and Ghafoor Haidri for PKR 7.6 milion. Ten-armored Land Cruisers are bought by federal government for PKR 150 million.

Instead of already having dozens of vehicles, twenty more 1300c cars are bought by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs for secretaries of parliament as per documents of budget. After recommendation of committee, the budget had sanctioned already by finance ministry to purchase these vehicles according to a senior ministry official. For security purposes, more than 1800cc vehicles were given to the Ministers, as same fetaures are not accessible in other cars those come under the limit of 1800cc. For maintenance cost and repair costs of the two VVIP aircrafts, PKR 133.9 million are also sanctioned by the ministry. As per recently budgetary documents, for G-IV and the Gulfstream G450, the money was sanctioned.

Monthly allowance of PKR 68,000 to PKR 97000 was introduced by PML-N which is against the law and based on the pretext that the official cars would not be assisted. During implementation of car monetization policy authorities are easy-going, as within basic pay-scale of 20 to 22, all bureaucrats misuse official vehicles.