At a meeting of the Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs on Monday, it was revealed that Ministry of Finance and Revenue had amended the rules so that the Rs 300,000 traveling allowance to the members of National Assembly could now be used for trips to other countries.
The Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs met in the Parliament House under the chairmanship of Mian Abdul Manan to discuss special report of the Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs regarding monetization of free traveling allowance for parliamentarians. It was recommended by the committee that Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) funds limit for parliamentarians should be enhanced up to Rs 50 million instead of Rs 20 million. The committee called for provision of additional development funds for women-reserved seats in the parliament.
The committee members were informed by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs secretary that Ministry of Finance and Revenue has already amended Section 10 of the Member of the Parliament (Salaries and Allowance) Act, 1974 so that the words “within Pakistan” had been omitted from the statute concerning the limitations of utilising vouchers worth Rs 300,000. Consequently, the vouchers under Section 10 referred to above were acceptable for traveling abroad as well.
The committee recommended that the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs would forward a letter to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) management for issuance of International tickets against MCOs and vouchers.
The committee recommended that members’ salaries and allowances should be defined according to the warrant of precedence a protocol list which that names government functionaries according to rank and office. The committee decided to call Ministry of Interior in the next meeting because the matter with regard to warrant of precedence is lying with the Ministry of Interior.
The committee recommended that Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) officials would be called in the next meeting for briefing on the status of electoral reforms.