Written replies have been sought from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chief secretary, personal secretary to the chief minister and finance department secretary in a case filed by opposition parties alleging inequitable distribution of Annual Development Programme funds.
A Peshawar High Court bench of Justice Nisar Hussain Khan and Justice Musarrat Hilali issued notices to the three officials on Tuesday while hearing a petition jointly filed by MPAs of Qaumi Watan Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Awami National Party, Pakistan Peoples Party and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl. These lawmakers are Sultan Muhammad, Muhammad Shiraz Khan, Jafar Shah, Nighat Orakzai and Malik Riaz, respectively.
The court has also sought comments from the officials in the petitioners’ request for interim relief wherein they have asked the court to refrain the chief minister from using his discretionary powers to make allocations only to his favourites and release funds that the petitioners are entitled to.
Submitted in court
The petition which was filed on Monday states, “In the budget for financial year 2014-15, Rs20 million were allocated for each member of the provincial assembly, including MPAs of opposition parties.”
However, the CM has reserved billions of rupees to be distributed as discretionary funds, it adds, further stating that the CM also gave a large amount to “leaders of the ruling party (PTI) and favourite ministers” under the special initiative programme.
“The special recipients from the K-P budget include Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and MNA Imran Khan who is spending millions of rupees on various schemes of reserved forest and construction of roads,” the MPAs allege in the petition.
The petitioners further claim senior minister Shahram Tarakai received Rs200 million while former finance minister and Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq received Rs320 million. According to the petitioners, they tried to obtain copies of the CM’s directives issued in favour of these beneficiaries, but were turned down.
The petitioners also claim PTI K-P President has been allocated Rs1 billion by the government even though he is not a lawmaker, while some National Assembly constituencies have also been allocated funds from the provincial government even though they fall under the federal government.
“All members of the provincial assembly are not treated equally; the allocation of funds among MPAs is not equal. The petitioners are entitled to Rs20 million but the same is denied,” the petition states, requesting the court to issue orders declaring the petitioners equally entitled to allocation of development funds.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 17th, 2014.
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