The Supreme Court has fixed a constitutional petition, seeking direction to the chief ministers of the four provinces to announce the provincial finance commission awards, for hearing on March 25.
A three-judge bench of the apex court led by Justice Umar Mushir Alam will take up the case filed by Rana Munwar Ahmad. In the petition, the federal government and the provincial governments have been made the respondents. The petition says that the provincial award provides a uniformed legal criteria and standards for the distribution of financial resources at the grassroots level in accordance with articles 140A and 156(2) of the Constitution and the local government laws.
The petition contends that diverting funds from tax-generating areas to other areas without providing adequate share in the development funds and schemes for such areas “is not the equitable, balanced and fair distribution of funds under any law and principles of equity”. “Absence of certain uniform standards and a legal basis for the distribution of state finances, using unfair and illegal discretion without adhering to the fundamental principle of regional equity, the tax generating areas have been grossly ignored by the respondents,” says the petition.
“This unfair financial distribution makes areas such as Karachi — that generates most of the income for the federal as well as for the provincial government — feel alienated. Besides, having the largest population, it receives only a meagre share from the state finance for its development,” it added. “Likewise, gas generating areas/cities of Pakistan are kept most backward and underdeveloped in spite of adding big share to the national exchequer. Unfortunately, similar practice has been adopted by the other three provinces.”
The petition involves the question of public importance with reference to the enforcement of the fundamental rights conferred by the Constitution to the public. The petitioner seeks judicial embargo on the unbridled and unchecked discretionary powers, illegally and unconstitutionally encroached upon by the respondents – the federal and the provincial governments. It further seeks a binding interpretation of the Articles 140A, 156 and 160 of the Constitution, read with all enabling provisions of laws, including the statutes, regulating the local government systems in all four provinces that deal with the fiduciary powers and authority of the respondents.
The petitioner prayed that the unbridled and unchecked discretionary powers with regard to the allocation of the financial resources, encroached upon by the federal and provincial governments be declared illegal, unconstitutional and in negation to the fundamental rights of the public at large. The petitioner has also pleaded to the apex court that the respondents be restricted from using of the discretionary powers with regard to allocations of development funds and distributions thereto on the political basis. “The Provincial Finance Commission Award 2006 may be opted as criteria to ensure transparent, fair and balance distribution amongst the local and provincial governments,” reads the petition.
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The court is also requested to pass direction for defreezing the local government funds forthwith and direct all federal and provincial officials concerned to utilise these funds at the district and tehsil/taluqa levels for the public welfare and betterment of the respective areas. Likewise, the petitioner further prayed to the court to restrain provincial finance secretaries from making the discretionary allocations of the development funds, at the behest of the chief executives of all four provinces, forthwith. “To announce the National Finance Commission award subject to a detailed, balanced and comprehensive plan devised under Article 156(2) of the Constitution introduced through the Provincial Finance Commission Awards in accordance with the law and Constitution,” it said.
The petition contends that the provincial bureaucracy, while acting in absolute derogation of the law and the Constitution, usurped the fundamental rights of the public at the behest of their political high-ups, by withholding and freezing local government funds without any legal authority. “The provincial authorities act in violation of their legal obligations to appease the executive heads as their careers, postings and transfers are in the hands of the political elite and while doing so the public interest and wellbeing is totally ignored,” the petition says.
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