Buland Akhtar Rana

Who is Buland Akhtar Rana?

Buland Akhtar Rana is the newly appointed Auditor General of Pakistan, as of August 2011 under the orders of President Asif Ali Zardari. The previous auditor-general was Tanvir Ali Agha, who had resigned amid a controversy on whether he was able continue to hold office for another four months; subsequently, Aneece Marghub was appointed as the acting auditor-general. Rana belongs to Multan and is affiliated with the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. He is regarded to be a family friend of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and was promoted to the rank of a grade 22 officer, thereby making him eligible for receiving the post and also making him the senior most official of the audit and accounts group. Previously, he has served as the acting secretary of the Human Rights Division and also served as deputy auditor-general.

His appointment was regarded as controversial, coming amid a time when the Public Accounts Committee was all set to take up the government’s audit reports involving alleged financial irregularities and embezzlement of billions of rupees. The opposition party Pakistan Muslim League condemned his promotion and called it a propagation of "cronyism" culture by the government. The chairman of PAC also threatened to resign over what he saw the government proceeding to appoint its "favourite" and "handpicked" officer in order to cover up government corruption.