ISLAMABAD, April 19: The Supreme Court was baffled to learn on Friday that former prime minister Raja Parvez Ashraf, during his last days in office, diverted Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) funds meant for projects of national importance to please some former legislators and notables. He doled out billions of rupees for development schemes in different constituencies under the Peoples Works Programme (PWP-II). About Rs42.48 billion was released for different projects on the instructions of Raja Ashraf, which was Rs25bn more than the Rs22bn annual budgetary discretionary funds of a prime minister.

Ironically, Rs15bn of the Rs25bn was diverted from the PSDP meant for important projects like Diamer-Bhasha Dam, Lowari Tunnel, Higher Education Commission (HEC), National Savings, funds reserved for purchasing ambulances for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Larkana sewage, education, health and other programmes.

“Undoubtedly if completed, these projects of national importance would have been in the interest of economic development that ultimately would have benefited the nation,” said Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who heads a three-judge bench hearing a case relating to misuse of development funds.

Cabinet Secretary Nargis Setthi acknowledged before the bench that the trend of diverting funds from different heads had been going on for the past two decades in the absence of any monitoring mechanism.

But she had some good news since her division could process 879 of the 1,049 directives issued by the Prime Minister Secretariat for small development schemes for the benefit of a few people, thus saving Rs4.5bn. The total request for release of funds for the 2012-13 PWP-II was Rs47bn.

The apex court had taken notice of doling out development funds among 69 lawmakers, including Ali Musa Gilani and Abdul Qadir Gilani, sons of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Mr Gilani, after having been declared ineligible to hold the office of prime minister, also received Rs25 million. Moonis Elahi, son of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, got Rs50m and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Pervez Elahi and Wajahat Hussain Rs1bn, Sheikh Waqas Akram Rs30m and the Shirazi family of Sindh Rs100m.

Raja Ashraf got Rs2.5bn released for his own constituency.

After a detailed hearing on Friday, the Supreme Court stayed the disbursement of funds and ordered the Auditor General Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) to ensure that no funds were given to the executing agencies till a final decision on the case.

The AGPR is also required to submit in three days a compliance report for perusal of the judges in their chambers and to satisfy whether PPRA (Public Procurement Regulatory Authority) rules were adhered to in the sanctioning of funds.

The executing agencies have been asked not to execute the projects till further orders.

The Planning and Development Division will submit a reply whereas Attorney General Irfan Qadir will assist the court on April 30.

The court regretted that instead of spending PSDP allocations, the funds had been surrendered in favour of the cabinet division to be diverted to the PWP-II for different schemes sought by parliamentarians, members of the Punjab Assembly and some notables knowing well that the allocation under the discretionary funds had already been exhausted.

So inference could be drawn that the purpose of diverting funds was nothing but to indulge in pre-poll rigging, knowing well that there was no monitoring system to ensure spending of PWP-II in a transparent manner, it said.

The court also asked the prime minister’s special secretary to submit instructions, if any, on the basis of which the premier had been persuaded by the lawmakers to allocate funds for the PWP-II. The secretary will also explain if there is any system for subjecting the schemes to technical scrutiny before allocating development funds or if the matter is left solely to the prime minister’s discretion.

The secretary will answer whether the prime minister alone enjoys unfettered powers to make such allocations at the request of legislators without adhering to rules of business and sanction by the cabinet.