Decision to Double MNA’s DF; under the theme No More Poor, No More Poverty

The Wikipedia Define Legislature;

A type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to create and change laws.

QandA encyclopedia define legislature;

Representative assembly empowered to enact statute law.

Princeton University’s website defines it;

legislature, ( legislative assembly, legislative body, general assembly, law-makers) persons who make or amend or repeal laws.

 Business words defines legislature;

A lawmaking body, as in: The legislature meets in the state capital.

 And legislator;

 Member of a lawmaking body.

Read all available definitions of legislature and you will find it is a body to make legislation while its members are involved in the process of legislation by passing bills. Their main Job is “to make and amend laws.”

In Pakistan the legislator either sleep or remain absent during the session of parliament. Their main Job is to do the developmental work. In my view our MPs deserve to be called councilors or community workers, although they given the funds very few spend that on the community welfare.

It would be injustice to call them legislator as their work is to construct roads, bridges and schools. Every year a large sum in the name of development fund is issued to the MNAs and MPAs in Pakistan. These funds are a bounty for the MNAs to cover their expenses being spent during the electioneering. But all this is not what I wanted to share.

The disturbing story is that Government has decided to double the development funds of MNAs in these troubled times. The Dawn reads;

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani apparently shrugged off economic woes for a while in the National Assembly on Tuesday to give a windfall to the lower house members by doubling their annual development fund to Rs20 million each on the eve of the new fiscal year. He gave no reason for the increase announced in a single sentence before the house was prorogued after a 19-day budget session.

What reason can he give?-The reason that we have more and more funds to spend? That we have covered up our budget deficits and are in the position to spend the extra funds? No reasons at all but the successive governments are bent upon to eliminate poverty, the task which we can’t achieve without eliminating the poor itself. The people concerned about the IDPs of swat should be prepared for seeing the whole nation being turned into IDPs, except the Well Placed persons (WPPs), of which these MNA are part.