Featured image: Syed Fahim Haider / Unsplash (representative image)
Three former executive engineers of Gwadar’s Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) have been placed on Officer on Special Duty (OSD) status after Balochistan’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) uncovered Rs590.813 million in unauthorized liabilities, tender-free spending, and improperly maintained stock records in the department’s accounts, according to Dawn and Daily Qudrat. The committee, chaired by Asghar Ali Tareen, has given the three officials 15 days to submit records and explanations or face possible referral to Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The case, reviewed at a PAC meeting reported on September 16, 2026, covers PHED Gwadar’s spending across the 2018-19 to 2020-21 financial years and adds to a longer record of scrutiny over how money has been managed in one of Gwadar’s core public service departments even as the city absorbs billions of rupees in CPEC-linked development funding.
What the Audit Found
According to the audit findings presented to the PAC, the irregularities in PHED Gwadar’s accounts break down as follows:
- Rs590.813 million in unauthorized accrued liabilities, largely tied to petroleum, oil and lubricant (POL) charges and repair and maintenance costs.
- Rs492.363 million in expenditure carried out without competitive tenders, a violation of standard public procurement rules.
- Rs38.426 million in maintenance spending, some of it linked to drought-response work, that auditors flagged as unjustified or inadequately documented.
- Rs23.967 million in income tax that was not deducted from payments as required.
- Broader deficiencies in how the department maintained its stock accounts and financial records over the audited period.
Three Ex-Engineers Placed on Special Duty
The three officials implicated served as executive engineers in PHED Gwadar between 2018 and 2021; their names have not been made public in reporting on the case. The PAC ordered them placed on OSD status, a formal administrative measure that removes an official from their operational post pending inquiry, and directed them to appear before the committee’s next meeting via their respective deputy commissioners.
Committee member Ubaidullah Gorgage warned that the PAC could order registration of FIRs against the executive engineers if they failed to comply with the panel’s directives. Members said that, depending on what the submitted records show, the matter could also be referred to NAB, the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team, or the Balochistan Anti-Corruption Establishment for further investigation.
A Recurring Pattern in Gwadar’s Development Spending
This is not the first time PHED Gwadar’s books have drawn PAC scrutiny. An earlier audit reviewed by the committee in mid-2025 identified roughly Rs5.9 billion in irregularities across the department’s water and infrastructure projects, including a 42 percent cost escalation on the Mangi Dam project – from an original Rs7 billion to roughly Rs18 billion – along with 1.43 million liters of diesel distributed without adequate record-keeping. Taken together, the two cases point to a persistent gap between how much money has moved through Gwadar’s water infrastructure programs and how well that spending has been documented and tendered.
The irregularities also sit alongside a period in which Gwadar’s water supply network has expanded substantially, with combined daily supply from desalination, dams and pipelines rising above 25 million gallons by early 2026 after an 11 billion rupee pipeline rehabilitation project. The PAC’s findings do not dispute that expansion took place; they concern whether the funds behind it, and related maintenance spending, were procured and recorded according to public-sector rules.
Why It Matters
Gwadar’s development narrative has largely centered on visible infrastructure: the port, the expressway, the airport, and now an expanded water network. Oversight cases like this one highlight a less visible but equally consequential piece of that story – whether the public bodies executing these projects are managing funds with the documentation and procurement discipline the law requires. Repeated findings of tender-free spending and unrecorded liabilities in a department responsible for basic services can complicate public confidence in how development funds are managed, independent of whether the underlying infrastructure gets built.
Balochistan’s PAC has increasingly used public hearings to press this point across departments, including previous sessions scrutinizing industrial bodies and hospital administration. The Gwadar PHED case is the latest instance of that pressure being applied to a department tied directly to the port city’s development spending.
What Happens Next
No findings of criminal wrongdoing have been made against the three former engineers; the OSD placement and 15-day deadline are administrative and investigative steps, not a legal verdict. The PAC is expected to review the officials’ submitted records and explanations at its next meeting, after which it will decide whether to pursue FIRs or refer the case to NAB, the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team, or the Anti-Corruption Establishment. Gwadar Post will follow the case and report further developments as the committee’s review proceeds.
Sources: Dawn, Daily Qudrat