PML-N doled out whopping Rs54b to MPs in six months

Over 90% expenses on lawmakers’ recommendation go to Punjab

ISLAMABAD: Amid concerns about pre-poll rigging, the PML-N government has doled out Rs54 billion to parliamentarians for development spending during past six months alone, taking the total discretionary spending to a whopping Rs130 billion in about three years.

Documents of the Planning and Development Ministry show that more than 90% of the funds were spent in Punjab, which will be the battlefield to win the National Assembly in the 2018 general elections. More than half of the 272 directly contested National Assembly seats are in Punjab.

From July through December 22 this year, the planning ministry distributed Rs54 billion for spending on gas, electricity and road projects in the constituencies won by the PML-N or its allied parties, according to the documents.



This includes Rs17.63 billion spending from the Special Federal Development Programme, Rs3.6 billion from Energy for All programme, Rs266 million from Water for All scheme and Rs32.6 billion of PM’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) achievement fund.

The decision to distribute the SDGs funds is taken by just a few people, including the parliamentary affairs minister and Capt (retd) Mohammed Safdar, the son-in-law of the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. From the planning ministry, Development Budget Advisor Asif Sheikh is providing the requisite support to divert these funds, according to sources.

Bureaucrats of the ministry have already gone to the Islamabad High Court, seeking Sheikh’s removal on the plea that he is illegally sitting in the ministry. In his writ petition, the joint chief economist of the ministry alleged that “Asif Sheikh obliges government by playing with the public money for their political management” through the grant to the MNAs of billions of rupees in development funds.



Sheikh will turn 70 in March and cannot be a government contractual employee, for which the age limit is 65 years. The sources said the planning minister and secretary were not willing to remove Sheikh ahead of next elections despite the legal complications.

The ministry’s documents show that most of the discretionary funds are going into Punjab. For instance, out of Rs74.3 billion SDG funds that the government gave to provinces from 2014-15 onwards, Rs69.7 billion, or 94%, has gone to Punjab. This amount is exclusive of Rs34.3 billion that the federal ministries spent in the provinces. Over 90% of this amount has also gone to Punjab.

The funds given to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh have also gone to the constituencies of the PML-N or like-minded parties. Sindh received a paltry Rs2.13 billion from Rs74.3 billion, K-P Rs1.48 billion and Balochistan only Rs935 million.



These discretionary spending is also a violation of the Supreme Court’s judgment in the case of former PM Raja Pervez Ashraf. The sources in the planning ministry alleged that most of the projects were approved by flouting the rules. The ministry was not involved in technical, financial and economic appraisal of the schemes.

The breakup of the Rs3.6 billion spending from the Energy for All Programme again shows PML-N centric patterns. To create room for these gas supply schemes, the government diverted Rs5 billion from Energy for All and special development areas budget to the Petroleum Division. It increased the division’s budget by 890% to Rs5.54 billion after the approval of the budget from parliament.

In the constituency of the planning minister, Rs387.42 million was given recently for a gas supply scheme. A sum of Rs252.3 million was given to MNA Ibadullah and his brother Amir Muqam for NA-29, NA-30 and NA-31. Ibadullah is MNA from NA-31 and Muqam lost elections from NA-30.

During by-polls in NA-4, Peshawar, the PML-N government gave Rs250 million for a gas supply scheme.



In the NA-129 constituency of PML-N’s Shazia Mubashar, the government gave Rs300.4 million for gas schemes. In the NA-60 constituency of PML-N MNA Maj (retd) Tahir Iqbal, it gave Rs139.2 million for a gas scheme.

In the NA-131 constituency of PML-N MNA Rana Afzaal Hussain, the planning ministry allowed two schemes of Rs229.4 million. In NA -132, the constituency of Defense Production Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain, the government gave Rs340.5 million for gas schemes. In NA-146 of PML-N’s MNA Rao Mohammad Ajmal Khan, Rs237.6 million was sanctioned, in NA-87 of Ghulam Mohammad Lali Rs100 million and in NA-163 of Chaudhry Mohammad Munir Azhar Rs105.3 million.

An amount of Rs294 million was allotted for gas schemes in Murree and Kahuta, while Rs500 million was approved for the constituency of Industries Minister Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi.

Meanwhile, the planning ministry’s internal correspondence revealed that the Sindh and K-P governments had asked the ministry and the Cabinet Division for matching grants for the SDGs programme but had been denied the funds. This is contrary to the SDGs Steering Committee’s claim that the provinces ruled by opposition parties were not interested in spending on the goals.