Govt, opposition finalise funds distribution formula

Opposition women and minority members excluded from funding pie

PESHAWAR: After rowing over the issue for months resulting in a protest by lawmakers outside the Chief Minister House, K-P assembly members from both sides of the aisle on Sunday finally managed to resolve their differences over the distribution of development funds with a 65-35 formula

Despite deciding on the formula, women and minority members have been excluded from the formula after which the lawmakers have started consultation amongst the parties and the Ombudsman while mulling filing a petition in the court.

Some opposition members of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly had staged a protest in front of the Chief Minister House in Peshawar last week to protest how they were being ignored in the legislative process and development funds. Subsequently, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan constituted a committee comprising provincial ministers such as Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, Qalandar Lodhi, Akbar Khan and Sultan Mohammad Khan to sit with the opposition members Sardar Hussain Babak, Munwar Khan Sher Azam Wazir, Nghat Orakzai, Inayatullah Khan and Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha. The committee was to thrash out a solution.

After a few rounds, the treasury and opposition benches agreed on a formula to distribute development funds between them with a ratio of 65 per cent for government members and 35 per cent for opposition members. The government, though, has asked the opposition members to pre-submit all projects for their constituencies which are valued at Rs3.5 million or more.

Awami National Party (ANP) Parliamentary Leader Babak said that Rs300 million for development schemes will be allotted to each constituency in the province, whereas elected members of government benches will receive Rs10 million in development funds.

However, a source said that the committee has ignored reserved seat members of the opposition in this formula. The opposition boasts six reserved seats for women including Nighat Orakzai, Shagufta  Malik, Shahida Waheed, Rehana Ismail, Sobia Shahid, and Humaira Khatoon and a solitary minority member Ranjeet Singh. However, under the proposed formula, these people will not get development funds.

The women members said that they have decided to challenge their exclusion and are reviewing various options, including complaining to the ombudsperson.

“We are looking at various options, either to go to the ombudsperson or file a petition in the court to get our right from the provincial government,” the source said, adding that they are also part and parcel of the provincial assembly and that they will never surrender their rights.

However, the source said that they have yet to make a final decision in this regard. By contrast, the government decided to allocate Rs50 million for the women and minority members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). If the same funds’ distribution formula is applied for the opposition, their women and minority members should receive at least Rs17 million.

Moreover, the source said that the government has yet to finalise a funds distribution policy for Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), whether they will receive the same funds as other government members or will they be provided funds as per the formula reserved for opposition members.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2019.