No plan to give MPs extra funds, says Dar

Says giving Rs1b to each lawmaker will violate SC orders, drain resources

ISLAMABAD: The government has no plan to dole out over Rs300 billion to parliamentarians for spending in their constituencies, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Saturday, pointing out that any such move will violate Supreme Court orders and drain resources.

“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has not instructed me or the finance ministry to allocate funds for parliamentarians’ schemes,” Dar told reporters after attending a consultative workshop on the Draft Companies Bill. He termed recent reports that Premier Nawaz had asked him to give Rs1 billion to each parliamentarian for development in his or her constituency ‘a hoax’.



“Apart from the Rs20 billion that the federal government has given under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) programme, the government has no plan to give more funds to parliamentarians,” he said.

There are 446 members of Parliament and giving Rs1 billion to each of them would require Rs446 billion, almost equal to total federal development spending last fiscal year.

The minister said doling such an amount would mean registering an additional budget deficit of 1% of Gross Domestic Product, which the government cannot afford. “An SC decision also bars the prime minister from giving discretionary funds to parliamentarians,” he added.

To a question, Dar said the $500 million ten-year Eurobond would mature on March 31, which the government will pay back.



The repayment will not have any adverse implications on the country’s foreign currency reserves, as Pakistan would receive $502.6 million from the International Monetary Fund on account of second last loan tranche.

The minister also supported the move of tightening noose around handful of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs).

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2016.