The Lahore High Court on Friday dismissed as withdrawn a petition seeking a ban on allocation of development funds to members of the parliament. Justice Umar Ata Bandail observed that allocation of funds to members of assemblies is a policy matter and the courts could not interfere in it. The court told the petitioner that he could file a separate writ petition to challenge alleged horse trading.
The petitioner then requested to withdraw the petition and the court accepted his request. Petitioner Feroze Shah Gilani had submitted that allocation of funds to assembly members was a clear violation of the Constitution. He said legislators were clearly assigned to enact laws and rules, having no executive or administrative role to perform. He said allocation of fund was being used to bribe legislators and the threat to cut off funding was used to browbeat them. A majority of development funds were either siphoned in corrupt ways or were used in sub-optimal manner, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 31st, 2012.
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