ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court asked the Balochistan government on Wednesday to submit details about the development funds it had received under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award since 2008 and the projects where these had been spent.

Chief Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad is also required to provide details of the finances received from other sources and where it had been used.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justices Gulzar Ahmed and Sheikh Azmat Saeed had taken up a petition filed by Abdul Qahar Khan Waddan, a leader of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), raising questions about the way the uplift funds had been spent by the then coalition government led by Nawab Aslam Raisani.

The court hinted at examining rules and laws governing disbursement of special grants among the elected representatives who identify development schemes in their constituencies and then supervise their execution.

The court ordered the provincial government to inform it what criminal or civil actions had been initiated against those responsible after an inspection team highlighted in its report deficiencies and corruption in various projects.

Advocate Khawaja Haris, representing the chief secretary, requested the court to vacate a stay it had granted in November as a result of which work on Rs24 billion development projects had been stopped.

Advocate General of Balochistan Amanullah Kinrani said the money would stand lapsed if not spent before June.

The court assured him that the matter would be disposed of as early as possible.

Advocate Iftikhar Gillani, representing the petitioner, informed the court that the Raisani government had allocated Rs250 million to each of the total 60 members of the Balochistan Assembly for their development schemes, but most of the money had been misappropriated and pocketed, leaving majority of the projects incomplete.

The petitioner accused the former legislators as well as government officials of committing massive corruption and requested the court to order recovery of the embezzled money.