NA rejects Rs21b allocation for Punjab polls as Supreme Court deadline expires

Law minister tells House elections can be postponed due to extraordinary situation as per Article-254 n Acting Governor says SBP allocated Rs21 billion as per SC order but has no authority to release funds n Aisha Ghaus Pasha clarifies central bank can’t release funds without Parliament’s approval.

ISLAMABAD     -    The National Assembly Monday re­jected a supplementary demand for a grant for the elections in Punjab province with the observation that only the Lower House of Parliament had the authority to give any amount from the Federal Consolidated Fund. 

Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar moved the supplemen­tary demand of Rs21 billion in the House to meet the expenditures for elections in Punjab. He said the feder­al cabinet had referred the matter to the National Assembly which had the authority to approve or disapprove additional expenses under Articles 82 (2) and 84 of the Constitution. “In such economic circumstances if elec­tions are held again and again for the sake of one man’s ego, it is not in the country’s interest,” he said, add­ing that the federal government had presented a bill in the lower house of parliament for treating the funds required as a “charged expenditure”. “But this House after thorough delib­erations, rejected the bill,” he said.

He said the amounts in the Fed­eral Consolidated Fund except charged expenditure could be only given after approval of the august House as no other insti­tution had any authority in that regard. He said the Supreme Court in its order directed to get ex-post facto approval of it but the Standing Committee on Fi­nance had directed the Finance Division to take up the issue in Federal Cabinet and deliberate it in the form of a demand or bill. 

He said the appropriate fo­rum was the National Assembly, “which accords approval of ex­penses from the Federal Consol­idated Fund” and that was why the cabinet had referred the matter to the House. 

It may be mentioned that the NA’s Standing Committee on Fi­nance earlier decided to for­ward the matter of releasing Rs21 billion funds for Punjab elections to the National Assem­bly as a three-member bench in the case of delay in the Pun­jab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa elections had ordered the State Bank of Pakistan on April 14, 2023, to directly issue Rs21 bil­lion for the elections and submit its report on April 18 (today). 

The committee, after a brief­ing, decided to take the matter to the Parliament after approv­al from the Federal Cabinet. The law minister said the Supreme Court had ordered provision of funds for the Punjab elections, but no funds in that regard were kept in the Federal Consolidat­ed Fund.

For the release of funds as a supplementary grant, the Na­tional Assembly’s nod was nec­essary, he said and moved the supplementary demand 64-A which was rejected by the House. Highlighting the back­ground of the matter, the minis­ter said the National Assembly adopted separate resolutions for holding general elections throughout the country simul­taneously. 

The Supreme Court, he said, took suo motu notice on the matter and constituted a nine-member bench to hear the case. He said Article 218 read along with Article 224, sections 57, 58 and 59 of the Elections Act and the verdict of the Su­preme Court itself in the Work­ers Party case allowed to hold the elections simultaneously in the country. The Election Com­mission of Pakistan (ECP), he said, had postponed the elec­tions in Punjab and Khyber Pa­khtunkhwa keeping in view the security, political and economic challenges faced by Pakistan at the current juncture.

Tarar said Article 224 asked for the general elections at the same time across the country, while as per Article 254 polls could be postponed due to the extraordinary situation as the ECP had the mandate to adjust the schedule of the elections keeping in view ground reali­ties. He regretted that the suo motu proceedings were initi­ated by the nine-member SC bench, which had been relegat­ed to three members. Firstly it had to be interpreted that if the judgement dated March 1, was issued with the majority of 4-3 member bench, he added.

‘ELECTION FUNDS’ SUMMARY’

The federal cabinet Monday referred a summary of the pro­vision of funds to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to the National Assembly for further consideration. 

The elections funds’ summa­ry was forwarded by the finance ministry which was prepared as per the recommendation of the National Assembly Stand­ing Committee on Finance for the provision of required funds to the ECP. 

The cabinet also paid tribute to the late minister Mufti Ab­dul Shakoor who died in a traf­fic mishap in Islamabad, a few days back. Addressing the cab­inet meeting here, Prime Min­ister Shehbaz Sharif said the late minister was a renowned religious scholar and an hon­est, hardworking member of his cabinet. The prime minis­ter said that the late minister ran his election campaign in his constituency on a motorcycle.

During the cabinet meet­ings, he found the late minis­ter as a straightforward and clear-minded speaker. The prime minister said the late minister made excellent ar­rangements with his hard work and honesty.

“Today, not only this house and parliament, but the whole country lost a great scholar, mufti and thinker,” he lamented. Former member of the cabinet had no other sources of income except his salary, he added. 

‘NO AUTHORITY TO RE­LEASE ELECTIONS FUNDS’

The National Assembly Stand­ing Committee on Finance and Revenue Monday moved back the issue of releasing Rs21 bil­lion funds for the elections in Punjab province to the federal cabinet and parliament.

The committee, which met un­der the chair of Qaiser Ahmed Shaikh, discussed the issue of Supreme Court of Pakistan’s di­rection to State Bank of Paki­stan (SBP) to release Rs21 bil­lion to Election Commission of Pakistan for the election in Pun­jab by Monday (April 17). It unanimously recommended the Finance Division that the mat­ter may be placed before the Na­tional Assembly in the form of a Bill through the Federal Cabi­net in order to comply with the apex court orders.

The committee members ex­pressed concerns over the apex court directives for releasing funds without approval of the federal government and par­liament. SBP Acting Governor Sima Kamil said that the SBP had allocated Rs21 billion for elections in the Punjab and Khy­ber Pakhtunkhwa as directed by the Supreme Court but it had no authority to release the amount.

State Minister for Finance and Revenue Aisha Ghaus Pasha clarified that the central bank could not release the funds without approval of the Parlia­ment, as the SBP could only allo­cate funds, but cannot disburse until receiving proper instruc­tions from the Finance Division. “If the National Assembly al­lows, funds can be released [to the ECP],” she said, clarifying that even the Finance Division cannot spend without seeking permission from the cabinet and the lower house.

Federal Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarar said that each and every penny from Federal Con­solidated Fund (FCF) could be spent as according to the federal government’s wish. He informed the committee that funds for the elections were not allocated in the budget. However, later, the federal government had pre­sented the bill, titled “Charged Sum for General Election (Pro­vincial Assemblies of Punjab & Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), which was rejected by both houses of parliament. He further said that matter regarding Supreme Court’s 17th April decision, the funds should be reviewed first and asserted that the “Constitu­tion precedes all”.