Dar says SBP lacks authority to release funds for polls

Minister says additional Rs14b would be needed for the exercise

ISLAMABAD:

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday maintained that funds for the elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa could not be released until the process was in accordance with the one mentioned in the Constitution and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) lacked the authority to issue them on its own.

During his speech in the National Assembly, the minister said it was a constitutional requirement to hold federal and provincial elections simultaneously.
He claimed that there would be additional expenses of Rs14 billion for holding the elections.

“Even if the funds are released, is it possible to conduct the elections in 90 days? Can Pakistan afford the current [economic] situation for much longer?” he asked.
The minister said the NA had rejected the demand for the release of funds by rejecting the resolution and supplementary grant.

“We cannot give this money, let this House guide us,” he added.

Dar said in the budget for 2022-23, an amount of only Rs5 billion was allocated for the elections even though a sum of Rs47.4 billion was required for holding the polls in the financial year 2023-24.

He claimed that if Article 63-A of the Constitution was not “rewritten”, this situation would not have come up and the elections of national and provincial assemblies would have been held simultaneously.

The minister maintained that the world was surprised by the new interpretation of Article 63-A.

He noted that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had asked the finance ministry for funds for conducting the polls.

He added that on ministry’s inquiry, the  commission had said that an amount of Rs14.4 billion would be spent on holding the polls.

Dar continued that the commission had told his ministry that if the elections were held simultaneously, the total expenditure would be Rs47.4 billion.

The minister maintained that in this way, these expenses would reach a sum of Rs61.8 billion if the polls were held separately.

“The finance ministry can provide the allocated amount in the budget but there are also supplementary grants outside it,” he added.

Dar claimed that the finance ministry always tried to discourage side grants to maintain financial discipline.

“We always follow the Constitution and law for the disbursement of funds. We have also seen this demand for money in the context of mandatory spending. We have also seen this under Article 81E of the Constitution,” he continued.

The minister said he was talking about how the government's money bill could be rejected.

“If the State Bank does not have the authority to issue the money, the finance ministry has the constitutional and legal powers to issue this directive,” he added.

Dar said the Standing Committee on Finance of the National Assembly gave a clear direction to the finance ministry that the matter should be placed before the NA through the federal cabinet for the release of the amount.

“Keeping this in view, we moved the motion 64-A for supplementary grant of Rs21 billion in this House which was rejected by it,” he explained.

He maintained that the world was surprised why Pakistan had not gone bankrupt.
“Ever since Shehbaz Sharif assumed power, not a single payment has been delayed,” he continued.

Dar claimed that Pakistan was coming out of its worst economic crisis.

He added that the current government was not responsible for the country’s current financial woes.

“The PML-N government had left Pakistan as the 24th emerging economy in the world in 2018 and is now ranked 47th,” he continued.

“We had started economic improvement [after returning to power last year], but a sudden disaster came in the form of  floods from the Almighty,” he added.

He maintained that if his advices were paid heed to, the country’s foreign reserves would have been $24 billion now.

He questioned what doomsday would come If all the elections in the country were held on a single day.

The minister noted that despite the economic difficulties, a sum of Rs35 billion was being spent on the census.

He continued that billions of rupees were spent on the 2013 census.

Dar continued that despite the difficulties being faced in the ongoing census, efforts were under way to complete it.

(With input from APP)