Dar insists that government is not funding MNAs projects. STOCK IMAGE
Despite a ban imposed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on discretionary spending, the federal government on Tuesday pledged to fund senators’ development schemes after it found a novel way to finance the Members of National Assembly (MNAs) uplift projects.
The senators belonging to all political parties unanimously called for the ruling government to finance their schemes. The demand was raised during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, which met under the chair of PPP senator Saleem Mandviwall.
“The government should give at least Rs200 million annually for the projects recommended by the senators,” said senator Sardar Fateh Muhammad Hasni. Balochistan’s members of provincial assembly were getting Rs350 million annual discretionary funds and the Punjab government was also financing schemes of their ministers, he pointed out.
“The Supreme Court [SC] has banned the discretionary funds for parliamentarians but the government will find a legal and constitutional solution to fund the senators’ schemes without violating the SC judgment,” assured Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to his fellow senators. However, he insisted that the government was not funding the MNAs schemes.
He said under a 2013 decision, the apex court had banned discretionary funds besides stopping the government from giving supplementary budget.
Giving supplementary budget, the minister said, was the constitutional right of the government that the SC also subsequently agreed. However, the ban on discretionary funds remains intact, he added. “The government is funding the MNAs schemes through District Coordination Officers,” insisted ANP senator Ilyas Bilour.
PML-Q senator Kamal Agha demanded that “the government should also fund the senators’ schemes in the same manner”.
Novel method
After the SC banned the discretionary funds, the federal government has started funding MNAs schemes under the garb of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In the outgoing fiscal year, it allocated Rs12.5 billion for implementation of the MDGs, which the government diverted in February this year for carrying out development activities in the constituencies of parliamentarians, reinitiating the process of spending on schemes identified by public representatives.
The Ministry of Planning and Development has handed over the MDGs funds to the Cabinet Division for subsequent allocations for the projects, which will be carried out in the constituencies of the lawmakers.
A committee, headed by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed, is allocating funds to the individual schemes.
The minimum limit of the uplift project has been set of Rs500,000 while there is no upper-cap. These schemes are implemented in the name of community development schemes and are recommended by the local community and confirmed by the respective District Coordination Officer (DCO). The purpose of involving the DCOs was to camouflage the real motive.
The SC had banned the discretionary spending after former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf diverted billions of rupees for spending in constituencies desired by the PPP leadership.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 10th, 2015.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ