Pakistan’s Public Accounts Committee has uncovered millions of rupees in alleged financial irregularities at Pakistani embassies abroad, exposing weak oversight at diplomatic missions that the committee says must now be met with fresh investigations, recovered funds and better qualified staff.
The committee, chaired by Syed Naveed Qamar, reviewed audit objections involving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the financial year 2023-24 at Parliament House on Wednesday, and found cases spread across several countries, from alleged embezzlement to education funds left undistributed.
The most serious case concerned Pakistan’s Embassy in Austria, where an accountant allegedly embezzled Rs165.6 million by transferring money into personal bank accounts belonging to himself and his wife. The accused was referred to the Federal Investigation Agency, and two first information reports were registered. Yet six years on, little progress has been made beyond registering those cases, a delay the chairman sharply criticised. FIA officials told the committee that the accused had been arrested but later released on bail, and the committee summoned the FIA director general to its next meeting to explain the investigation.
The Foreign Secretary told the committee that the employee had been dismissed and that the Foreign Office had begun legal proceedings before the audit authorities identified the irregularities, putting the amount involved at around 170,000 euros. The committee directed the Foreign Secretary to conduct a fresh investigation and report within one month.
Rs29 million irregularities in Bulgaria
A second case involved alleged embezzlement of Rs29 million at Pakistan’s Embassy in Bulgaria. An inquiry committee was formed on September 10, 2026, but it had not travelled to Bulgaria because of government restrictions on foreign travel imposed under austerity measures. The committee recommended officials be allowed to travel abroad when necessary for such investigations.
The Foreign Secretary told the committee that the employee in the Bulgaria case had initially admitted to the allegations but later challenged his dismissal in court, and was reinstated following a court order. That sequence leaves the money, the admission and the official’s status all unresolved.
Rs17.2 million community welfare fund spending questioned
The committee also questioned the use of more than Rs17.2 million from the Community Welfare Fund by the Pakistan Community Welfare School in Abu Dhabi. Naveed Qamar asked how spending community funds on the school benefited the wider Pakistani community and whether the expenditure had received proper approval, questions that go to the heart of what a welfare fund is for and who is entitled to decide how it is spent.
The Foreign Secretary said the school charged low fees, followed the Pakistani curriculum and had a student population comprising 98 percent Pakistani children, adding that fee collections were insufficient to cover operating costs and therefore required financial assistance. She maintained that the expenditure had been approved through the required process. The exchange left the question unresolved: the school serves Pakistani families, but the committee insists community money must be spent transparently.
Rs1.22 billion in HEC funds held in US embassy
The committee then turned to student funds, where the sums were larger still. Audit officials said Pakistan’s Embassy in Berlin had withdrawn more than 360,000 euros from education funds and had not replenished the amount. The Foreign Secretary said missions sometimes borrowed funds to meet essential expenses, a practice the chairman objected to and which Auditor General officials called improper, since the money belonged to the Higher Education Commission. The committee directed the commission to recover it within three months.
In another case, audit officials revealed that Pakistan’s Embassy in the United States was holding more than Rs1.22 billion in Higher Education Commission funds that had not been distributed to students. The Foreign Secretary said the commission was responsible for identifying eligible students and that the embassy had not received instructions to release the funds. The committee referred the matter to the Departmental Accounts Committee.
More financial irregularities at overseas missions
The committee also examined other audit objections. Audit officials said Pakistan’s mission in Dhaka had maintained a bank account since 1986 without providing the required approval documents from the Ministry of Finance or relevant bank statements. The Director General Finance informed the committee that two accounts existed, holding approximately 98,000 dollars and 1 million dollars, and the committee referred the matter back to the Departmental Accounts Committee. Rental income generated by Pakistan’s mission in Vienna had been deposited into an unauthorised account, which the committee directed the Ministry of Finance to regularise, and funds allocated for construction work in Australia had not been surrendered.
Auditor General officials highlighted a shortage of qualified accounting staff at missions, saying assistants were sometimes given accounting duties despite lacking experience. The committee directed the Foreign Office to appoint experienced accountants and investigate the irregularities properly.
The measure of this session will be what happens next: a fresh report within a month on Austria, recovery within three months of the Berlin funds, and examination of the undistributed student funds and the Dhaka accounts. If those deadlines produce recovered money and concluded cases, the committee’s work will have mattered. If they pass quietly, these irregularities will join a long list of audit objections noted but left behind, under the same weak controls that allowed them to arise.
