ISLAMABAD: In a surprise move, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has announced that its government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will not present the budget for the next financial year because of the position the party has taken against the PML-N governments at the Centre and Punjab that an outgoing government has no mandate to do so.

The decision was announced by PTI Chairman Imran Khan at a media briefing after presiding over a meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) here on Thursday.

“We have passed a resolution (at the meeting) that a government which has only 45 days in office has no mandate to present a budget for the whole year. We will oppose it. We have decided that (Chief Minister) Pervez Khattak will not present the budget in KP as we don’t have a mandate to do so,” Mr Khan stated without elaborating as to how the provincial matters would be run after the expiry of the present budget on June 30.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) which is also opposing the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) decision to present the federal budget for the fiscal year 2018-19, has expressed its surprise over the PTI’s announcement, saying such a step would create a precarious situation in KP and questions can be raised on the expenditures which would be made by the caretaker government after July 1 when the new financial year would start.

When contacted, PPP’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Syed Naveed Qamar said his party was of the view that the PML-N government could only present the budget for four months and not for the whole year.

In reply to a question, he said the PPP-led Sindh government should also present the budget for four months only in line with the position they had taken at the centre.

Outgoing PML-N govts in Centre and Punjab have no mandate to present budget for a whole year, says Imran

Mr Qamar also expressed his surprise over the PTI’s announcement, saying it was strange that the PTI wanted to run the financial affairs of KP “illegally” after the end of the current financial year.

Opposition Leader in the Senate and another PPP leader Sherry Rehman told Dawn that her party was opposed to the federal government’s move to present the budget for the whole year but the Sindh government would have no option but to announce the budget if the federal government did so.

“We protest the federal government bringing a budget just before elections. But if the federal government presents a budget, then Sindh will also do so. If we don’t, it will weaken the federation,” she said, adding: “We fight for Pakistan, not at its expense.”

PTI’s Information Secretary Fawad Chaudhry told Dawn that the decision to not present the KP budget was taken after a thorough deliberation and reviewing all aspects.

Regarding the legal or constitutional obligation, he claimed that there was no such requirement for a provincial government to present the budget for a limited period.

Mr Chaudhry said the interim government could authorise expenditures during June from an already approved budget for the current fiscal year. He said it was the month of July when the question of approved expenditures would arise. Quoting Article 86 of the Constitution, he said, the Constitution had envisaged such a possibility and had, therefore, made provision to this effect.

Article 86 of the Constitution reads: “Notwithstanding anything contained in the foregoing provisions relating to financial matters, at any time when the National Assembly stands dissolved, the federal government may authorise expenditure from the Federal Consolidated Fund in respect of the estimated expenditure for a period not exceeding four months in any financial year, pending completion of the procedure prescribed in Article 82 for the voting of grants and the authentication of the schedule of authorized expenditure in accordance with the provisions of Article 83 in relation to the expenditure.”

Evidently, he said, the caretaker government could authorise expenditures for 120 days i.e. up to October 28 when the assembly stood dissolved.

The PTI chairman at the press conference declared that they had decided to take disciplinary action against the party legislators in the KP Assembly who had sold their votes during the Senate polls.

Mr Khan said they were consulting lawyers and as soon as the party got a green signal from the lawyers, these MPAs would be expelled without caring for the consequences.

The PTI had claimed that it had conducted an inquiry and found that at least 15 of its MPAs had voted for the candidates of other parties in the Senate elections.

The PTI chairman also expressed concerns over non-implementation of reforms in Fata. He regretted that the government was not merging the tribal areas with KP only because of the opposition by its allies.

He also claimed that the April 29 Lahore public meeting would prove that people stood with the judiciary.

Published in Dawn, Aprill 13th, 2018