Issuing fund to MPs ahead of polls is graft: Justice Isa

Justice Qazi Faez Isa has observed that if Prime Minister Imran Khan is allocating funds to lawmakers ahead of the Senate elections then he is not only violating a Supreme Court verdict – and thus committing a contempt of court – but is also involved in “corrupt practices”.

The apex court judge made this observation on Wednesday as part of a five-judge larger bench that was hearing a case initiated after publication of a news report and editorial about Prime Minister Imran Khan’s intention to issue Rs500 million development fund to each lawmaker.

Appearing before the bench, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Javed Khan submitted a report signed by Principle Secretary to the PM Azam Khan that no fund will be given to any lawmaker in violation of the apex court’s 2013 judgment.

The Supreme Court’s December 2013 verdict declared that the Constitution does not permit the use or allocation of funds to parliamentarians and provincial assembly lawmakers or notables at the sole discretion of the prime minister or chief ministers.

“If there is any practice of allocation of funds to the MNAs [Members National Assembly] or the MPAs [Members Provincial Assembly] at the sole discretion of the PM [prime minister] or the CM [chief ministers], the same is illegal and unconstitutional .

“The government is bound to establish procedure/criteria for governing allocation of such funds for this purpose,” said the 2013 verdict authored by former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry over allocation of discretionary fund by former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.

However, Justice Isa wondered why PM did not deny the news report as well as the editorial regarding his announcement. He said every day there is a daily bombardment of news by Ministry of Information but the said news report was not being denied.

The SC judge said the report that the AGP submitted was filed by the secretary to the PM who belongs to bureaucracy. “The secretary is not a spokesperson of the political party’s head [Imran Khan],” he said. Justice Isa said the premier should categorically deny this news item.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan, another member of the bench, said the government should clarify that no funds are allocated to lawmakers and no such thing will be done in future in violation of the Constitution.

Later, the bench sought the federal government's written undertaking – signed by Prime Minister Imran Khan – stating that development funds would not be given to any lawmaker in violation of Constitution and the SC’s 2013 judgment.

The bench asked the Punjab government to submit a written undertaking in this regard as well. The court also directed Sindh advocate general to submit a reply about the matter by Thursday [today].

Earlier, the Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) governments denied that they allocated any funds to the lawmakers in violation of the Constitution.

The top court on February 3 sought explanation from the federal government about a news report and an editorial published respectively on January 28 and February 1 in a newspaper about the government’s plan to issue development grants to each lawmaker.

The two-judge bench, comprising Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Maqbool Baqar, had directed its office to issue notices to the federal government, Ministry of Finance secretary and all provincial governments.

In its order, the court had noted that apparently neither the news report nor subsequent editorial comment were denied or contradicted by the federal government or the prime minister.

After reproducing the relevant paras of that ruling, the bench had referred to clause (2) of Article 5, which says obedience of the Constitution and the law is the inviolable obligation of every citizen.

Interestingly, the court had also referred to clause (2) (a) of Article 204 of the Constitution which empowers this court to take action against any person who disobeys any order of the court and the oath of office of judges requires them to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.