What is preventing federal and provincial authorities from discontinuing the perks of their former offices enjoyed by Imran Khan and his top aides at the public expense?
By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: They were ousted from power more than eight months ago, immediately after which event they resigned their National Assembly seats en bloc in protest.
But mind-boggling as it is, some of the top leaders of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) continue to enjoy the perks of their former offices as if they still hold those offices.
The financial implications of these irregularities may run upwards of a billion rupees a month.
The list starts with Khan himself, who still has unfettered access to the resources of multiple federating units as if he was still the prime minister.
Khan’s personal security detail alone, standing guard at his Zaman Park residence, is said to number around 2,500 security personnel pooled by the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) governments.
This is clearly out of line, considering our other former prime ministers are provided two or three policemen in the name of security.
But his entitlement does not end there. His perks include access to official vehicles and helicopters as well as a VVIP motorcade when travelling by road.
Another prominent example of a PTI leader living a charmed life is Asad Qaisar, Khan’s handpicked Speaker of the National Assembly who resigned on April 9, 2022, after refusing the process the constitutionally binding vote of no-confidence against his benefactor.
But the lawmaker from Swabi continues to keep in his service at least 11 official staff entitled to his former office – including 2 assistant directors, 3 assistants, a media assistant, a cook, and four drivers.
In addition, the provincial government of KP continues to provide him a security detail comprising 13 security personnel.
When he was still incumbent as Speaker, Asad Qaiser was known to use a cabinet pool vehicle formally allotted to Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani.
Officials say the vehicle has since been withdrawn from his service, but the former Speaker has lately been seen visiting his native Swabi in the same vehicle.
In addition to Qaisar, two of Khan’s former cabinet ministers, Fawad Chaudhry and Noorul Haq Qadri, continue to occupy their plush Ministers’ Enclave pads as if they were still in power.
And more than 100 of the PTI MNAs said to have resigned en bloc on April 11 continue live in the official accommodations allotted to them as parliamentarians.
These include 9 whose resignations were accepted in July, and 1 who was de-seated by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a recount.
While some of these irregularities can be explained away on some pretext, others are glaring missteps by provincial and federal authorities that may one day come back to bite them.
For instance, we could say the MNAs who resignations have still not been accepted remain entitled to their parliamentary perks. But what about those whose resignations have been accepted or who have been otherwise de-seated?
Equally, there seems to be no explanation for a provincial government according to a former prime minister the protocol only a sitting prime minister is entitled to.
Even more perplexingly, what is preventing the National Assembly or Cabinet secretariats from recalling their staff and vehicles from Asad Qaisar, or repossessing the accommodations Fawad Chaudhry and Noorul Haq Qadri continue to occupy without entitlement?
Could it be magnanimity exercised by Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leadership against a vanquished political foe? Could it be lenience or negligence of the bureaucracy?
Nothing is certain at this point – except that whenever the law is allowed to take its course, those enjoying these perks without entitlement will have to pay for their transgressions through their noses, and those allowing these irregularities on their watch may find themselves in the dock.
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