PESHAWAR, June 20: Opposition members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly believe the disqualification of Yousaf Raza Gilani as the prime minister has created doubts about the legality of the provincial budget for the next fiscal.
Parliamentary leaders of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl and Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao told Dawn on Wednesday that the provincial budget for financial year 2012-13 would be without legitimacy if the Supreme Court in its detailed order didn’t give legal cover to decisions taken by Mr Gilani as the prime minister after April 26, 2012.
“The Supreme Court’s short order (under which Mr Gilani was disqualified on Tuesday) has created doubts, leaving many things uncertain,” opposition leader in the provincial assembly Akram Khan Durrani said.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s budget for the next financial year was approved by the provincial assembly on Wednesday.
Speaker Kiramatullah Khan Chagharmatti denied many of the opposition members’ cut motions, clubbing them together to get them passed from the House.
Mr Durrani told Dawn that the provincial government would be legally bound to rectify its mistake if the Supreme Court didn’t provide cover to Mr Gilani’s decisions in the post-April 26 period.
“Like the next federal government, they (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government) will also need to provide legal cover to the provincial budget if the Supreme Court’s detailed order into Mr Gilani’s disqualification does not provide legal cover to his decisions after April 26,” said Mr Durrani, a former chief minister.
Sikandar Sherpao, parliamentary leader of PPP-S, said the schedule of the federal government’s expenditure signed by Mr Gilani (as the Prime Minister) had lost validity unless provided legal cover under the Supreme Court’s detailed judgment expected in days to come.
The two opposition leaders based their argument on the premise that, in line with the Supreme Court’s short order, Mr Gilani lost premiership on April 26, last and decisions taken by him would be without lawful authority unless provided legal cover by the Supreme Court in its detailed judgment.
“This (short order) has left all of his (Mr Gilani’s) decisions, visits, expenditures, and actions without lawful authority unless and until the Supreme Court provides them legal cover in its detailed judgment in the premier’s disqualification case,” said Mr. Durrani.
The province, said Mr Sherpao, received over 90 per cent of its revenue receipts from the Center. “The federal budget, in accordance with the court’s short order, has lost validity, therefore, the estimates of federal releases to provinces for the financial year 2012-13, too, have lost legal weightage until provided legal cover in the detailed judgment,” Mr Sherpao told Dawn.
Another opposition member, Javed Abbasi of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, however, believes that the Supreme Court’s detailed judgment would remove the ambiguity.
“The detailed judgment is expected to provide legal cover to the federal budget and all other actions that the Prime Minister and his cabinet took since April 26, last,” Mr Abbasi told Dawn.
A former secretary finance of the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said that the Supreme Court’s short order was not without consequences for the province’s next financial year’s budget in view of the Court’s short order. He added that if adequate care was not taken under the detailed judgment to legalize the former premier’s decisions after April 26 – the date when he lost premiership in accordance with the Court’s order – it would bring under question the provincial budget’s legality.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, like other federating units, receives its receipts in accordance with the projections reflected under the federal budget,” said the expert, adding “if the federal budget has lost validity how can the provincial budget(s) be regarded as legal documents?”
The question surrounding the legality of the provincial budget, said a senior government official, had also come under informal discussion in the provincial government’s bureaucratic circles. Senior officials of the provincial government’s line departments, in their private discussions, presented varying views about the provincial budget’s legal status.
“We think the provincial budget has a constitutional cover even after the short order of the Supreme Court,” said the official.
“Our budget is under the legal instrument as the province receives its receipts from the federal government under the National Finance Commission award,” said another official.
The budgets earmarked for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Azad Jammu and Kashmir under the next financial year’s federal budget, added the official, might have lost legal ground, but ‘Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s budget is a legal document.’
“The next federal government might need to rectify the situation as the new federal cabinet might need to ratify the federal budget presented on June 1, last, under a prime minister who has been declared without lawful authority,” said the senior government official.
The provincial opposition leader also holds the same opinion. Mr Durrani said the new Prime Minister would be moved a new summary to ratify the federal budget presented on June 1, 2012.