ISLAMABAD    -    National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has written a let­ter to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial urg­ing the higher judiciary to exer­cise restraint and respect parlia­ment’s legislative domain.

The speaker wrote the letter after the government benches in the National Assembly session yesterday mandated him reiter­ating their stance that the parlia­ment is the supreme institution of the country and has the au­thority to make legislation.

The government termed the court order for releasing Rs21 billion funds to the Election Commission of Pakistan for holding general elections in Pun­jab as a direct interference in the parliament’s domain. 

The speaker said: “The SC must, as far as possible, avoid getting involved in [the] political thicket. It is best to leave resolution of po­litical matters by the parliament and the political parties.

“I, on behalf of the NA of Paki­stan, urge the honourable chief justice and judges of the SC to ex­ercise restraint, and respect the legislative domain of parliament.

“We must work together to uphold the Constitution, pro­tect democratic values and work within our respective constitu­tional domains to ensure that confrontation between the or­gans of the state is avoided and constitutional order is main­tained,” he said.

At the outset of the letter, the speaker said he was writing to convey the “profound concern and unease” of the country’s elected representatives regard­ing recent decisions by the top court as well as some comments made by judges.

He said that the House felt that the “recent decisions” amount­ed to encroaching on its two core constitutional functions i.e. law making and power of the purse. Ashraf said that the bench had ignored the fact that the NA had passed a resolu­tion against the SC’s decision to quash the ECP’s decision to de­lay polls in Punjab till October and had rejected the Charged Sums for General Elections (Provincial Assemblies of the Punjab and KP) Bill, while the NA standing committee had directed the Finance Di­vision to seek the assembly’s prior approval. He added that the bench “appeared to be in a hurry” and had, therefore, giv­en “unusual directions” to the government to authorise the expenditure of Rs21bn from the Federal Consolidated Fund (FCF) “and then present it as fait accompli to the NA”.

“The NA notes with great con­cern that despite knowing the consequences and effects of such prior authorisation, which will be rejected by the NA when presented for ex-post facto ap­proval, the three-judge bench of the SC has threatened the feder­al government of ‘serious con­sequences’ for not authorising the expenditure of Rs21 billion.

“This, the NA notes with great dismay, is an attempt to under­mine the NA and amounts to breakdown of the constitutional order. The NA is quite clear that such direction is an impermissi­ble intrusion into the exclusive jurisdiction and authority of the NA, a breach of its privilege,” Ashraf said.

The NA speaker further said that the power of the purse be­longed solely to the lower house of parliament, adding that the assembly would defend this right. “Any attempt to circum­vent and sidestep the constitu­tional mechanism and due pro­cess shall be repelled by the NA,” he said. He said that he was also conveying the sense of the House that an “unnecessary confrontation, deeply damag­ing to national interest, is being created by the repeated orders to release funds to the ECP, dis­regarding the express will of the NA”. The treasury lawmakers on Wednesday opposed release of funds to hold elections for the provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

While speaking in the session, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar cat­egorically said that holding of elections simultaneously in all provinces and centre was a con­stitutional obligation adding the country could not afford elec­tions in parts.

He said it was not for the first time that election was not being held within 90 days. In past, the election was delayed due to the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and due to natural calam­ity in 1988, he said. He said the National Assembly has already rejected Rs 21 billion elections fund bill twice besides pass­ing a resolution to reject a bill seeking election expenditure for Election Commission of Pa­kistan (ECP).

He said the general elections of 2018 were held on the basis of old census due to the reser­vations of two provinces after bringing necessary legislation.

He said the government had allocated Rs 5 billion for ECP in the fiscal budget for the year 2022-23. The ECP had raised a demand of Rs 54 billion in the next fiscal year 2023-24 for holding general elections, he added. However, Dar said the Finance Division decided to al­locate Rs 47.4 billion to ECP for elections during next fiscal year 2023-24. “Today, we would not face such a situation if Article 63A was not rewritten,” he said.

He said new interpretation of Article 63A caused anomalies and it was an attempt to create anarchy in the country. The ECP sought Rs 21 billion for hold­ing elections in Punjab and Khy­ber-Pakhtunkwa, he added.

He said Rs14.4 billion addi­tional amount would incur on holding separate elections in the provinces. The Finance Minis­try could allocate fund for elec­tions in the budget and without budget, allocation could only be done through supplementa­ry grants. The Finance Ministry mostly discouraged practice of supplementary grants in order to ensure financial discipline, he added. He said that the Finance Ministry always followed the Constitution and law for pay­ment of funds. The State Bank of Pakistan (SPB) could only al­locate fund but it could not re­lease it, he added. The Finance Division could not release funds without approval of the parlia­ment, he added. Ishaq Dar said this august house has passed a resolution with regard to pay­ment of funds to ECP for elec­tions adding the Finance Min­istry was bound to follow the parliament’s decisions.

The NA Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue has also directed the Finance Minis­try to place the issue before the National Assembly for releasing funds in this regard.

However, he said the National Assembly rejected the supple­mentary grant resolution worth Rs 21 billion moved under the 64-A. The minister said “our country’s Stock Exchange val­ue stood at Rs 126 billion which was destroyed due to ‘Panama drama’ and selected govern­ment. Had his suggestions were accepted five years ago, the country’s reserve would have jumped to $24 billion today.”

He said those elements should be exposed who wrong­ly disqualified the then premier Nawaz Sharif and implicated him (Ishaq Dar) in false cases of tax returns.

He said not a single payment to international lenders was de­layed during the current gov­ernment’s rule. He sought the guidance of the members of the House, as the government could not release funds without ap­proval of the National Assembly.

The minister said an amount of Rs 35 billion was being spent on the population census de­spite limited resources. Despite spending a hefty amount on the population census in 2017, two provinces expressed severe res­ervations and the then govern­ment had to convene a meeting of Council of Common Interests (CCI), he added.

Taking the floor, Law Minis­ter Azam Nazir Tarar said that it is the sole prerogative of the National Assembly to take a fi­nal decision in releasing the amount from the Federal Con­solidated Funds as per spirit of the Constitution. He said the House has already rejected this matter twice. Speaking on the floor of the House, PPP Chair­man Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said elections should be held on the expiry of the constitutional time limit of all the assemblies simul­taneously on a single day. He said all the political parties, ex­cept one party, are unanimous on this demand.

He said political dialogue should be undertaken from the forum of the parliament and not from the courtrooms. He said a dialogue amongst the political parties will not only save the de­mocracy and the federation, but also protect the honour and dig­nity of institutions.

Bilawal further said PPP strongly believes in the Consti­tution and it cannot ignore the parliament. He added that the Parliament is the custodian of the national purse and mak­ers of laws. He said it is par­liament’s right to decide as to where and how national wealth will be spent. He said we are bound to comply with the direc­tions of the Parliament instead of any other institution.

JUI-F leader Shahid Akhtar Ali said it is time to stand for the supremacy of the Parliament.