Pakistan: Minority money, Muslim Haj

Not only has the misuse of funds at the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), allocated for the specific use of the minorities, been reported - but it has also been found that these stolen funds were ironically used to pay for Umra and Haj! This was disclosed by National Harmony Minister of State Akram Masih Gill during his testimony to the Public Accounts Committee during its meeting on Wednesday. He said that the tenure of the ETPB Chairman, Ashraf Hashmi, had expired, but he continued to hold charge. Mr Gill’s question, about the validity of any Haj or Umra performed with money meant for minority welfare, remains unanswered. What a shame that this money, apportioned for the upkeep and maintenance of minority places of worship, should be stolen, in defiance of the very teachings of Islam, to fund Islamic pilgrimages! This censure also applies to parts of the money spent on development in the Rahimyar Khan constituency of the minister of state, during the Musharraf era. This should go beyond the Committee’s stricture that this was abuse of authority. Both examples not only need investigation and affixing of guilt, but also highlight the misuse of supplementary grants, in a way which makes a mockery of the budgeting process, and of parliamentary oversight over public expenditure. Though the example of reappropriation of funds came to the Committee from the ETPB, this particular abuse is prevalent across the whole of government, and thus deserves more attention than before. Any money a department is unable to spend under a particular head should be carried forward, and not conveniently reappropriated to some other head. The provision for supplementary grants of this sort was supposed to be so as to allow emergency spending, but it represents a violation, indeed defiance, of the budgeting process, because it allows spending of government money on things that have not been approved by the Assembly. The government gets such supplementary budgets passed using the same threat as it uses for the budget itself: its own fall. This makes the Committee all the more important as a means of accountability. It is the Committee which has a major role in holding the Executive to account, and it must not limit itself to pointing out abuses, but also of ensuring that they are investigated thoroughly.