ISLAMABAD: In an otherwise dull and dreary sitting of the National Assembly on Tuesday, opposition members staged a walkout in protest against what they termed “sheer discrimination in the distribution of development grants among parliamentarians”.

Although the ruling PML-N has constantly been denying putting “legendary amounts” of development funds at the disposal of members of the two houses of parliament, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah said on the floor of the house that members “are receiving grants from the government side, though in a lopsided manner”.

Mr Shah added: “It is sheer discrimination that government members of parliament are getting Rs50 million per annum, whereas we in the opposition have only got Rs20 million.”

After Mr Shah’s statement, members of the opposition parties jointly boycotted the proceedings of the house.

The deputy speaker, who was chairing the session at the time, instead of waiting for the possible return of the opposition members (a couple of ministers had gone to them to persuade them to end the boycott) adjourned the sitting until Wednesday morning.

No explanation came from the treasury benches about what Mr Shah had asserted before leading the walkout.

However, talking to Dawn afterwards, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sheikh Aftab said the opposition “was confused about the development grants”. “The government will try to remove the misunderstanding,” he remarked.

The minister reiterated the government’s stance and said that unlike the past practice no parliamentarian had been provided development funds. Instead, he said, the government would undertake development projects in some constituencies through District Coordination Officers in consultation with elders of the areas concerned.

In the past the grants had been massively misused, Mr Aftab said. Therefore, the government had come up with a new idea to target the areas which were in genuine need of development schemes.

The government’s detractors feel that in the name of community development schemes, the ruling PML-N will divert funds to constituencies of its MNAs and Senators.

“For the PPP, it was the Peoples Works Programme and for the PML-N it will be community development schemes. One way or the other, elected representatives will be playing crucial role in determining the sites and sizes of the development projects to be carried out at the grassroots level,” said a well-informed federal secretary.

In his remarks, Mr Shah recalled how during the tenure of the previous PPP-led government, the development grants were provided to all legislators regardless of their political affiliation. “There has never been a single incident when legislators spoke against our government for ignoring opposition members in the distribution of development grants.” Calling for a detailed response on the matter from the government, Mr Shah said everybody sitting in the house had been elected. “Thus, there shouldn’t be discrimination in the distribution of development grants.”

During its five-year term (2008-2013), the PPP government released over Rs165bn under the Peoples Works Programmes I & II, for which it attracted a lot of criticism. One major issue at the time was that a major chunk of the released funds used to be funnelled away before reaching the project on the ground.

On Monday, women legislators from the reserved seats, sitting across the aisle joined hands for their share in the development funds.

In response, Rana Tanvir of the PML-N contended that being nominated members of the house, they couldn’t call for the same treatment as the elected members.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2015

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