ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan to furnish a clear, unambiguous and categorical statement on behalf of the finance department with Prime Minister’s signatures on the distribution of Rs500 million uplift grants among the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers.

The directives for the fresh statement was issued by a special five-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed, when Justice Qazi Faez Isa — a member of the bench — highlighted that no categorical answer to the query raised by the court through its February 3 order had come.

In fact the government had raised further doubts as if the government had kept open a backdoor channel for the distribution of the public funds, feared Justice Isa, also stating that doling out funds among the ruling legislators especially when the Senate elections were round the corner amounted to corrupt practices.

When the AGP read out a letter highlighting his meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan on this issue in which assurance was held out that whatever action regarding proposed distribution of funds would be done within the parameters of the constitution as well as keeping in view the 2014 Supreme Court judgement in the distribution of development funds by former Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf case, Justice Isa inquired from the AGP who had drafted the statement he was reading out. The AGP, however, highlighted counsel-client privilege.

Justice Isa then asked the attorney general to read out paragraph 4 from the order in which it was written that the opinion of the AGP was sought whether the distribution of public funds accorded with the Constitution and the 2014 judgement and whether the federal and provincial governments had handed over or intended to hand over funds to the legislators or carry out development works ‘identified’ by them.

The chief justice also asked the AGP to make a categorical statement at which AGP replied that he was making a categorical statement.

Justice Isa observed that if the impression was wrong then where was the denial on part of the government of the news report stating that the prime minister had approved the distribution of Rs500 million uplift grants among PTI legislators.

Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan also observed that the AG should make a statement that no such amount or a development scheme would be allocated or disbursed without due process of the law.

Why the prime minister was keeping quiet, Justice Isa wondered, adding that the principal secretary to the prime minister Azam Khan was the head of the bureaucracy and did not represent the chairman of a political party.

Justice Isa also highlighted that till date the statement had not been retracted by the government and when the Senate election was about to be held the decision to dole out grants among the ruling party lawmakers amounted to corrupt practices if not the contempt of court.

When there is a huge bombardment of information from government’s propaganda machinery each day why not this story on which even an editorial was written by a section of the press was not denied. This story appeared on the newspaper on January 28 and then an editorial was written and no categorical denial had come till date.

The chief justice, however, observed the categorical statement should come from the finance secretary who was the relevant authority in this regard. When he was dictating the order requiring the finance secretary to furnish a clear, categorical and unambiguous statement since the statement provided to the court did not meet the requirement of the order issued earlier, Justice Isa interjected and requested the chief justice to add in his order that any statement provided afresh should contain the prime minister’s signature.

At this, the AGP assured the court that he would provide a signed statement that neither the federal nor the provincial government would grant any development in violation of the terms of the Constitution as well as the court order.

Justice Isa then pointed out that the Punjab government’s statement, too, was not categorical as it had not answered the question put to them. The chief justice, however, asked the Punjab law officer to furnish a fresh report containing clear assurances to the court.

Likewise, the Sindh government was asked to furnish a proper written statement and ensure Advocate General Salman Talibuddin appear before the court when the case would resume again on Thursday stating that no funds would be given to any member of the provincial assembly and that the development funds would be spent as per the mandate of the Constitution and the rules for the utilisation of the funds as provided in the annual allocations through budget.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2021