In keeping track of money, women MPs just as bad

More than Rs10b allocated to female legislators in previous parliament, more than half unaccounted for

ISLAMABAD:

When it comes to not keeping track of the money allocated to their discretionary development budgets, it appears that the women in Parliament are not any better than the men.

Sixty women were elected to Parliament on reserved seats in the National Assembly, in addition to many others elected on general seats. Between all of them, they managed to get an estimated Rs10 billion in discretionary development spending allocated to them, but fewer than half of the projects that they allocated funds to can be accounted for by federal auditors.

The majority of the funds were allocated to lawmakers from the Pakistan Peoples Party, most of whom were not reelected in the 2013 elections. The funds utilised by woman lawmakers were more than the amounts allocated to Balochistan, the tribal areas and Islamabad. Yet, the vast majority of them have provided no evidence to the finance ministry that the funds were used for the development projects they had identified, nor even that the projects were undertaken at all.



Some of the lawmakers are now facing inquiries from the Federal Investigation Agency or the National Accountability Bureau. For instance, former information minister Firdous Ashiq Awan of the PPP was allocated Rs1.1 billion in discretionary development funds, but more than half the projects she initiated were not completed. NAB has now started an investigation against her on allegations that she embezzled millions of rupees meant for those projects.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Awan denied the allegations and claimed that her constituency in Sialkot saw more development during her time than many others. Asked why she was not reelected if that was the case, she said: "Unfortunately, people usually forget the services of legislators during election season."



Former National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza of the PPP was allocated Rs1.1 billion for development projects in her home district of Badin, but nearly 30% of those projects were never completed. Mirza claims that her projects have been reviewed and cleared by federal auditors.



Faryal Talpur of the PPP was allocated Rs780 million and claims to have spent it all on projects in her constituency in Nawabshah, but the Auditor General of Pakistan has no records of such projects. Naseem Akhtar Chaudhry of the PPP, who was ironically the chairperson of the National Assembly Law and Justice Committee, was allocated Rs500 million and has not provided any details about where she spent the money.

Asma Arbab Alamgir of the PPP is facing a NAB investigation after she failed to submit any details of the Rs580 million in discretionary development spending that was allocated to her, but her own personal bank accounts saw their balances increase to much higher levels than in the past. Her husband, Arbab Alamgir, who was former chairman of the National Highway Authority, was also allocated a similar amount and is also under investigation by NAB. Neither were reelected in 2013.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2015.