Tussle deepened; PAC seeks legal advisory on SC registrar's summoning

A tussle between the Supreme Court (SC) and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly over the non-appearance of the registrar has become deeper and now the chairman has requested the Speaker and Secretary of the assembly to provide legal assistance.
According to the 24News HD TV channel, the PAC meeting was held under the chair of its Chairman Noor Alam Khan in Islamabad on Tuesday and discussed the issue related to the SC's audit and the appearance of the registrar in detail.
The Committee took the matter of the SC Registrar's non-appearance as a serious concern while Chairman Noor Alam said they want a consultancy from the prominent legal experts Irfan Qadir, Shabbar Rizvi and Yasin Azad in this regard.
In the meeting, Attorney General also participated and suggested to the committee chairman that he should send another letter to the SC Registrar on this issue and ask for the record.
PAC Chairman Alam said they have summoned the Principal Accounting Officer of the SC and if he will not appear next Tuesday then his warrants will be issued after getting approval from the House.
Noor Alam said they called the SC registrar and a letter has been written that the matter of audit of accounts is under hearing but he did not bother to appear in the committee.
He said they will not take any action beyond the law as they are proceeding under Rule 203 and the audit objections of the SC from 1987 to 2021 are being discussed here in the committee.
Former Chief Justice Saqib Nisar himself had written at the time of the establishment of the Dam Fund that there would be an audit of the fund, Noor Alam Khan added.
Noor Alam said voting may not take place but an audit of the SC may take place and the PAC will consider its audit report. 
Over the issue of SC's audit, the Attorney General told the committee that all funds received by the court are public funds while the dam fund money was kept in another account instead of the public account.
The Attorney General said according to the law, the dam fund should be audited and the PAC is empowered to seek information from the Supreme Court on the direction of the audit authorities. 
The Attorney General said it is the responsibility of the Supreme Court to provide information. He added that the budget of the Supreme Court is charged and cannot be voted on. 
During the meeting, member Barjees Tahir of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) accountability of judges should be 10 times more than others and if they can't get details from the SC, then PAC should be disbanded.