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| 24 July 2004 | Saturday | 06 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425 |
Rs588 million spent on referendum, Senate told
ISLAMABAD, July 23: Official figures for the referendum of President Gen Pervez Musharraf placed before the Senate on Friday showed that Rs588 million had been spent on the exercise during 2002.
The officially admitted expenditure for the April 30 referendum which gave five-years of power to General Musharraf show that all the four provincial governments and the centre spent millions of rupees.
The government's statement came in response to a question by Senator Enver Baig of People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP), who had sought details of the amount spent by the government with a province-wise breakdown.
During the question hour, Enver Baig staged a walkout when chairman Muhammadmian Soomro did not allow him to ask any supplementary question. Leader of the house Wasim Sajjad and leader of the Democratic Alliance in the Senate, Raza Rabbani, brought him back after a few minutes when the chairman declared the question-hour over.
The details of the expenditure provided by the government showed that the federal government spent Rs185 million on referendum. A breakdown of the money spent by provincial governments showed that Punjab spent Rs211 million, Sindh Rs107 million, the NWFP Rs55.2 million and Balochistan Rs30 million.
Earlier, when the proceedings of the question hour began, the opposition staged a walkout against the absence of ministers. The chairman had to adjourn the house for half an hour after Raza Rabbani pounced on the opportunity to point out what he called "scant respect shown for parliament by the ministers."
When the house met again, Ahmed Ali of the treasury benches also protested the absence of ministers during the question hour and said they did not give any importance to the Senate.
Asked for an explanation by the chairman, Leader of the House Wasim Sajjad agreed that ministers or their colleagues should be present to answer questions on their behalf. He said the matter would be taken up with the prime minister.
The Senate chairman observed that he would take action on the absence of ministers. Debate on questions: Minister of state for parliamentary affairs, Raza Hayat Hiraj, was criticized by the treasury and opposition benches during the question hour, forcing him at one stage to apologize for certain remarks he had passed against a ruling party senator.
The minister faced tough questions on access to justice programme, jirga system and the concurrent legislative list from both sides of the divide in the upper house.
JIRGA SYSTEM: Mr Hiraj caused anxiety among the treasury members when he tried to put forward positive aspects of the jirga system. On a question by Dr Nighat Agha whether the government was considering doing away with the jirga system, Mr Hiraj said no legal cover was provided to the jirga system in settled areas nor the government was considering any proposal to regulate them.
He said every region had its own traditions and customs and the problems with the jirga system arose in negligible number of cases when they passed an illegal order. In case a jirga passes an illegal order, the courts and the government take cognizance of such cases, he said, adding that jirgas in a large number of cases led to amicable dispute resolution between the parties.
The minister condemned the shameful acts of injustices perpetrated by the jirga system and said that it might not be possible to eliminate the menace completely from society due to socio-cultural reasons rooted in traditions.
Challenging the contention of the minister, the ruling party members, including Dr Waseem Shahzad and Dr Nighat Agha, asked the government to take some initiative to regulate the jirga system.
Dr Nighat Agha said it was a parallel system and could not be defended on grounds of cultural and traditional reasons when injustice was being done. Dr Waseem Shahzad cited reported cases in which minor girls were married off to old men by the jirgas.
When Mr Hiraj passed a personal remark against Dr Shahzad, which was later expunged by the chairman, it led to a number of treasury members rising in agitation from their seats. Mr Hiraj's apology was acknowledged by the chairman, which led to the calming of tempers.
CONCURRENT LEGISLATIVE LIST: In reply to a question by Sanaullah Baloch, Mr Hiraj said there was no proposal under consideration of the government to give Concurrent Legislative List within the exclusive purview of the provinces.
Mr Hiraj said instead of the matter being referred to a standing committee of the Senate, the two houses of parliament were appropriate places to debate the matter. Access to Justice Programme (AJP):
Mr Hiraj conceded before that qualitative benefits, which were to accrue from the multi-billion-rupee Access to Justice Programme were not visible because of lack of implementation.
He said the limited funds released under AJP had been utilized for constructing boundary walls and lavatories instead of qualitative capacity building. When Kamran Murtaza pointed out that Balochistan was compelled to accept plans under AJP despite its initial rejection of the proposals, the Senate chairman said the provinces were initially reluctant but later all of them came on board.
Mr Hiraj said he could not disclose on the floor of the house the problems being encountered in implementing the AJP. He said the release of funds under AJP was done by the finance ministry while the implementation had to be done by the provinces in view of recommendations received from chief justices of the superior courts.
He said one meeting of the committee had taken place and things were expected to improve regarding implementation of AJP. Anwer Bhinder suggested that the federal government should get the AJP implemented as the courts were still facing a number of logistic problems.
The written reply submitted to the Senate by Mr Hiraj showed that Rs725 million had been allocated in the PSDP 2003-04 for Access to Justice Fund while no projects had been funded out of the amount so far. Mr Hiraj said Rs100 million had been provided in the PSDP 2003-04 for federal projects under AJP.
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