ISI and MI chiefs give security briefing to judges of the supreme court
ISLAMABAD: The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) chiefs gave a detailed briefing to the judges of the Supreme Court who ordered elections in Punjab.
The heads of ISI and MI gave a briefing to the chief justice and other judges of the bench in the chamber of the CJP Umar Ata Bandial for three consecutive hours on Monday.
Last week, the apex court ordered the State Bank of Pakistan to release Rs 21 billion for elections in Punjab.
Resultantly, the acting governor of the State Bank of Pakistan Sima Kamil informed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance on Monday that the SBP has allocated Rs21 billion for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold elections in Punjab. She, however, stated that the central bank does not have the authority to release funds directly.
The Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Finance held a crucial meeting on Monday to discuss the SC’s order to the SBP to release Rs 21 billion for the Punjab elections. PML-N MNA Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh chaired the meeting on Monday.
The matter was referred to the federal cabinet for the approval of a Rs 21 billion release, but the cabinet sent it to the National Assembly to get approval. The National Assembly, however, turned down the government’s request to release Rs 21 billion for elections in Punjab.
Earlier, Senator Azam Tarar, Federal Law Minister, told the NA’s panel that the Finance Ministry had already made it clear that funds are not available for elections in the ongoing fiscal year.
He said that spending money twice on the same elections was not a good decision.
It was decided in the meeting that a Money Bill will be presented in the National Assembly to authorize the release of the funds. If the Parliament approved the Money Bill, the government would release the funds for elections, he added.
Meanwhile,
the State Bank of Pakistan has allocated Rs 21 billion for elections in
Punjab as per the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
At present, about Rs 1.3 trillion were available in the federal government’s
account No. 1. The central bank has allocated Rs 21 billion from this account.
The State
Bank of Pakistan will inform the Finance Ministry on Monday (April 17)
about the allocation of money for elections in Punjab.
On Friday, the apex court ordered the central bank to provide Rs21 billion
to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for elections in Punjab. The
Supreme Court took the decision after the federal government refused to release
funds for elections.
A three-member SC bench comprised of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar
Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan, and Justice Munib Akhtar issued the orders.
