Federal Cabinet mulls over allocation of funds for election

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif mulling over allocation of funds to the election commission for holding polls in Punjab, ARY News reported on Monday.

The cabinet considering over a summary submitted by the Ministry of Finance with regard to provision of funds to the election commission for election.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar will brief the cabinet over the summary for election fund submitted by his ministry.

The cabinet that is deliberating over a two-point agenda will also grant approval of a proposal for sending Hajj pilgrims without balloting, sources said.

It is to be mentioned here that the secretaries and other officers were sent back out of the cabinet session.

It is to be mentioned here that a three-member bench of the supreme court headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, declared the ECP’s order of postponing the provincial assembly elections until October 8 as “unconstitutional” and ordered the government to release Rs21 billion funds for elections in Punjab by April 10 (today).

The sources said that the summary finalised by the finance ministry mentioned difficulties in the allocation of large sums for election separately from the budget scheme, which were not kept in the budget of the ongoing fiscal year.

Sources said that the funds for the election will be kept in the next budget.

It may be noted that today is the last day for the provision of funds to the Election Commission of Pakistan for Punjab polls as per the directions of the Supreme Court.