According to the rules and regulations, the purpose of the secret fund is only to obtain or uncover sensitive information necessary to protect ‘national interest/national security’. PHOTO: FILE
Details of payments made from the government’s secret funds may finally come to light today as the information ministry resubmits its list of secret expenses before the Supreme Court.
The ministry of information and broadcasting and various other ministries and attached departments of the federal government have spent billions under the secret funds during the tenure of the previous government. Despite the repeated orders of the Supreme Court, the details of these payments have not been forthcoming.
On April 11, the government’s counsel Advocate Raja Aamir first claimed blanket privilege for the whole list of the disbursements made under the information ministry’s secret fund. This was despite the fact that the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had earlier disclosed the details, along with a record of recipients, of its secret funds before the court.
During the hearing of the constitutional petition filed by three journalists (Hamid Mir, Absar Alam and Asad Kharal) seeking an end to the use of taxpayers’ money to buy journalists and media outlets, the two-member bench of Supreme Court comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain decided to implement Article 19 A of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and access to information.
Responding to the government lawyer, Justice Khwaja said, “It is apparent from the record that you are in the habit of buying off journalists and columnists.” The judge observed that by making such secret payments to journalists, “you [the government] give an impression that the whole media is a commodity for sale.” Perusing the submitted details, he also observed that another Rs300 million were apparently given to a private TV channel.
According to the rules and regulations, the purpose of the secret fund is only to obtain or uncover sensitive information necessary to protect ‘national interest/national security’. It cannot be used for any other purpose, such as emergencies or incidental expenses. All withdrawals are supposed to come under specific heads and justifications.
After the 18th amendment the government had categorically made it clear that every penny spent from the public exchequer was auditable.
The ministry, despite repeated court orders and a lapse of three months, has not submitted a reply regarding the spending of an amount of Rs4.790 billion under the heads of ‘secret funds’ distributed to different ministries, departments and other federal institutions in the past five years. By contrast, the total amount spent from this fund in the entire Musharraf tenure was 6.865 billion.
The major chuck of the funds had been allocated for the ministry of information technology (IT). Other recipients of the secret funds were interior ministry, communication ministry, ministry of foreign affairs, National Accountability Bureau, Airport Security Force and Federal Bureau of Revenue.
But despite repeated reminders by the auditor general of Pakistan to these ministries and departments, the ministry didn’t share the details of expenditure taking the stance that they are not bound to share the details of secret funds with anyone.
In the April 11 hearing four secret files were presented to the Supreme Court. Tahir Hassan, who is a director in the office of information secretary and is the official custodian of the secret record, selected a total of 18 items for claiming privilege out of a total 200 items.
The court will also examine if the claim of privilege over 18 other items is genuine, and the ministry will have to defend its stance if it claims that those items should be kept secret.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 17th, 2013.
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I am looking forward to the 8 PM show today to see how much detail coverage the TV channels give to the revelation.
Elected representatives must not be permitted to establish secret funds which can never be audited. Full audits must be allowed in the law after a reasonable period. If there is no law that mandates this, then we need to enact it. A referendum by cell phones would be the best way to let the awam decide how they wish their money to be treated. But till voting by cell phones becomes a reality, let us ask the new government to pass a bill to do this.
Supreme Court needs to be applauded for brining out this dirty laundry in the open. Let's see who got what from the government to do its dirty work. Let that information be put on the web so that whole nation can see it shameless faces.
Great going, it seems Supreme Court of Pakistan is the only institution in the country which stands tall and looking after the people's money and interests. Unfortunately the Supreme Court can not do it alone because too may people in too many ministries are corrupt to the core. Kudos to the Supreme Court for publishing the names and organizations which has received this booty and then they start singing the praises of Zardari and his minions.