Situating constituency funding

Going against his past protestations, the Prime Minister succumbed to constituency pressure by promising development funds of half a billion each to MNAs/MPAs. Luckily, timely court intervention has rescued him from the ignominy. Constituency funding is a means to buy political support. But the practice was not started by politicians. A rules-based mechanism exists for development budget allocation. Only projects/programmes satisfying the approval criteria are included. The practice of special programmes with block allocations for projects yet to be formed and approved started in the 1982-83 budget, with an allocation of Rs150 million. Under General Zia’s martial law, a nominated Majlis-e-Shura had come into being. Mahbubul Haq, a nominated planning minister, was finding it hard to follow his development agenda in the domineering presence of Ghulam Ishaq Khan who, as finance minister, was also the chairman of the Planning Commission. In an effort to create his own constituency, Mahbub decided to involve the Shura members in development activity. Officers of the Planning Commission were deputed to attend the Shura sessions to report on the issues of members’ interest. Meetings were held with groups of members in the light of these reports to make some need assessment and have a sense of priorities. While Mahbub was trying to pursue his development agenda, General Zia saw in this special programme an opportunity to prepare his own brand of politicians for any future political setup. Resultantly, the special programme had increased more than three-fold by 1984-85.

In February 1985, non-party general elections were held. Muhammad Khan Junejo was installed as prime minister, with Mahbub as finance minister. From half a billion, the special programmes allocation went up to Rs2.6 billion by 1985-86. The total allocation for special programmes in the Sixth Plan (1983-88) prepared under his close supervision was Rs15 billion. In December 1985, he designed Junejo’s five-point programme for 1986-87 to 1989-90. It included an MNAs/Senators programme of Rs7 billion. The tragic end of General Zia did not end the programme. The resumption of the party-based polls made no difference. Only the name would change. It was the People’s Works Programme for the PPP and Tameer-e-Watan Programme for the PML-N. Under General Musharraf and his PML-Q government, it was called Tameer-e-Pakistan Programme and Tameer-e-Watan Programme.

It is said that the absence of effective local governments creates a gap in service delivery at the grassroots. Funding small projects prioritised by the MNAs/MPAs fills this gap. This is not as it is made out to be. The pork barrel existed even when there were effective local institutions under General Musharraf. What started as a transactional relationship to seek votes in return for work done under the five-point programme, degenerated overtime into a politician-bureaucrat-contractor nexus of corruption. Ghost development activity was the inevitable outcome. From Rs5 million per legislator in 1985 to Rs500 million promised in 2021 has been a story of mutual back scratching of the familiar kind. Postings and transfers reflect the pattern. Small wonder that the data normally available on development funding is almost non-existent in this case. Funding is handled with such finesse that donors crusading against corruption also fall for it. In the context of education spending largely coming from donors, a 2010-11 study of Rawalpindi district by the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives concluded: “The Punjab government wooed both its MPAs and donors. MPAs were happy that they have been allowed to ‘identify’ schemes worth millions. At the same time donor conditionality of upgradation and provision of missing facilities was also fulfilled.” So the nexus expanded.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2021.

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