Thursday, May 15, 2014

Democracy’s Backdoor




There is news that the government of Pakistan has sought permission of the supreme court of Pakistan to re-appropriate Rs. 12.5 billion of development funds of the current budget to finance cost over-runs or accelerated expenditures of some projects. Whereas it shows the ineptness of the budget makers, it also shows the immaturity of the lawmakers.

In its judgment in December, 2013 in the case of dishing out 47 billion rupees to friends and family by the then prime minister of the other party, the SC had held that discretionary funds of the prime minister were unconstitutional and allocation and disbursement of development funds should be done in accordance with articles 80-84 of the constitution and according to established rules.

It is strange that the government of Mr. Nawaz Sharif prefers to have the supreme court do the work of the parliament. Why can’t the government introduce a supplementary bill to amend the allocations of the budget for the current year? If there is some hitch, it should move a constitutional amendment to make it possible.

It is a pity that both democratic governments and military dictators in Pakistan give the judiciary the status of a super-dictator when they need to get their own ill actions justified and then try to cut it to size.

I hope that this time the Supreme Court of Pakistan will not allow itself to be deceived and misused.

No comments:

Post a Comment