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ISLAMABAD: The use, misuse and lack of development funds by elected representatives have always made headlines. In the last week of November, the issues came up again on the floor of the National Assembly when elected representatives from various political parties spoke against the delayed release of development funds for their constituencies.
However, a fortnight later, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced the release of Rs70 million for each member of the Punjab Assembly from the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) only.
Grapevine has it that during a meeting of the parliamentary committee in Lahore, over a hundred MPAs of the PPP complained to the prime minister that the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government in Punjab was just facilitating its lawmakers.
The PPP provincial lawmakers are reported to have appealed to the prime minister for speedy release of the development funds if the leadership wanted to stay in competition during the next general elections given the skyrocketing popularity of Imran Khan and the PML-N.
As a result, Prime Minister Gilani immediately asked the federal finance ministry to make necessary arrangements and release the funds (only the PM and the four chief ministers can order the release of development funds).
Talking to Dawn , Navid Chaudhry, PPP Coordinator in Punjab for President Asif Zardari, defended the prime minister's move and claimed that the PML-N provincial government had always delayed implementing on development schemes in the constituencies of the PPP lawmakers.
“Anybody who is privy to the Public Works Development Department would verify the fact that there is a huge difference between the PPP and PML-N MPAs when it comes to the number of development schemes carried out in their constituencies. The latter get more preference,” said Mr Chaudhry.
He added that the provincial government had ready-made excuses to dump development schemes which the PPP lawmakers wanted for their constituents and so the lawmakers asked the federal government to intervene.
However, Senator Pervez Rashid of the PML-N, who speaks on-behalf of the provincial government, said it was an odd demand on part of the PPP provincial lawmakers. “Over the last three years when they were with us in the government, they never raised the issue of development funds – our government instead of distributing funds has undertaken schemes across party lines in the province,” commented Mr Rashid.He said there were standing instructions from the chief minister for all MNAs and MPAs of Punjab to come up with development schemes for their constituencies and the provincial government would implement them.
Senator Rashid claimed the prime minister's announcement to release Rs70 million as development funds to each of its 106 MPAs was merely to win over disgruntled members. This holds ground given that since the resignation of Shah Mehmood Qureshi from the PPP, there are reports of a forward bloc coming up within the party.
Interestingly, during the first year of the PPP-led government's tenure, every MNA and Senator was entitled to Rs10 million as development grant which was doubled to Rs20 million by the prime minister.
Under normal practice, parliamentarians and provincial lawmakers conceive need-based development schemes for their voters in their respective constituencies which are carried out through Public Works Department against these grants.
However, it's an established fact that these funds are used by politicians to strengthen their presence in their constituencies, instead of pure development. As a result, a major chunk of these is funneled away to line pockets at various levels, particularly the executing agencies in the form of kickbacks and commissions. Members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly, themselves recipients of the funds, have been complaining about massive corruption by the executing agencies.
It is on record that Sardar Bahadur Khan Sihar, a PML-Q MNA from Layyah district, had to initiate an inquiry and jail an executive engineer of the highway department for building low-quality road in his constituency.
Anusha Rehman, a PML-N MNA on a reserved seat, experienced a similar situation when she tried to set up a mother and childcare unit from her development grants. She said that despite her personal monitoring of the project, its director attempted to manipulate the tender and she was left with no option but to abandon the scheme.
In October 2010, a contractor approached Bushra Gohar of the ANP in the Parliament lodges to offer commissions for her development grant. But instead of accepting the proposal, Ms Gohar called police and put him behind the bars on charges of offering her bribe. Since then, she is campaigning in the house to stop with this practice of giving funds to the parliamentarians.
Though a minority, there are many MNAs who are of the view that the main focus of the parliamentarians should be on legislation and functioning of the standing committees, instead of development in their constituencies. But for that the country needs to have fully functional local governments, which unfortunately are yet to take root in the country.
