IHC CJ directs surrendering Rs100m to public kitty

ISLAMABAD: The Chief Justice (CJ) of Islamabad High Court (IHC) has decided a cut in the current fiscal year’s IHC budget and directed the authorities concerned to surrender around Rs100 million to public kitty in public interest and as a national cause.

He also ordered that no honorarium will be given to any employee.

Meanwhile, the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court (LHC) has granted Rs128 million as honorarium to its 1860 employees.

According to a letter issued by the IHC to the Finance Division on April 13, Rs11 million has already been surrendered. The sources said that the major cut of around Rs100 million will be surrendered by mid next month. It is said that the Finance Division has also been conveyed about this. The IHC CJ has also directed the Finance Department of his court that no case of honorarium should be initiated in view of the present financial constraints facing the country. No employee of the IHC will be granted honorarium, a source told The News. Meanwhile, the LHC CJ has granted Rs128 million as honorarium to its 1860 employees. According to the notifications issued on April 6, almost all officials of the LHC from BS-1 to BS-21 have been allowed honorarium. A total of Rs48 million has been given as honorarium to 696 employees from BS-16 to BS-21 and Rs80 million has been given to 1168 LHC employees from BS-1 to BS-15. Each of these employees from BS-1 to BS-21 has been granted Rs6,9000 honorarium.

The notification explains that the LHC CJ accorded sanction to the grant of honorarium in exercise of power conferred under Punjab government’s relevant notifications. It added that the expenditure involved will be met out of the sanctioned budget of the LHC. Last year in June 2022 too, the LHC had awarded honorarium of Rs133 million to its 1,939 employees. According to a notification issued on April 13, 2022, a total of Rs65 million was given to 732 employees in BS-16 to BS-20 while Rs68 million was given to 1,207 employees in BS-1 to BS-15.

Last time the honorarium amount varied between Rs70,000 from Rs150,000 for BS-16 to BS-20 employees whereas low-scale employees had got Rs55,000 to Rs60,000.

Last year in June, the IHC under the then IHC CJ Justice Athar Minallah (who is presently a SC judge) had surrendered 30 percent of the total budget allocated for FY 2021-22 to the public kitty. There was no free tea or refreshment for judges, no honorarium for employees to use the unutilised budget, no unnecessary renovation work and no wastage of money. More importantly, the IHC had approached the Auditor General of Pakistan to do the forensic audit of the taxpayers’ money spent by the IHC during Justice Minallah’s tenure. The IHC was allocated a total of Rs1,082 million budget for the last fiscal year ending on June 30, 2022. The IHC had then surrendered Rs311.4 million to the public exchequer for not being used. The IHC and all its existing judges had already made an exception in the superior judiciary by not even applying for government plots. The judges of the superior judiciary get government plots as part of the government policy, which is not covered by the Presidential order which sets judges terms and conditions. Justice Minallah had also barred the judicial officers, under his domain, as well as the employees of the Islamabad High Court from getting government plots.