ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance has expressed resentment over the salaries paid to, and perks and privileges enjoyed by, the recently-retired members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) contending that it had been done without a formal notification.

Terming the amount paid to ECP members during their five-year tenure — from June 11, 2011 to June 12, 2016 — as ‘illegally drawn’, senators demanded that the amount paid should be returned to the national exchequer.

“Salaries paid to retired members of the ECP was illegal and must be recovered,” Senator Kamil Ali Agha said. Senators Mohsin Aziz of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and independent Mohsin Leghari echoed his sentiment.

Senators were also surprised as to why the matter was not shared with the parliamentary committees even though the government and the ECP members themselves were aware that salaries and other privileges were to be notified after legislation.

Three members of the ECP received around Rs106m in salaries, allowances and perks, while only one member was paid Rs107.45m under these heads.

The travelling allowance and daily allowance (TADA) and medical bills of these four commission members totalled over Rs9m.

The committee chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwala had taken up the matter earlier. Mr Mandviwala pointed out that the finance bill related to the salaries of ECP members was sent by the ministry of finance to different parliamentary committees.

Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood explained to the committee that the bill was not sent to the Senate standing committee because earlier it was introduced as the money bill.

Furthermore, he said that prior to the 18th Constitution Amendment, the sitting judges of the high courts were members of the ECP, but after the 18th Amendment retired judges of high courts were to be made members of the ECP. Therefore their salary package became the responsibility of the Election Commission. However, the notification can only be issued after being passed by parliament.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016