Use of Punjab House Islamabad or any other official building, maintained by taxpayers’ money, by political party in power (without paying the cost as per rules) amounts to breach of laws. This vital issue is seldom debated which confirms that in our political milieu, corruption, abuse of powers, squandering of public money etc are not material issues. The ousted Prime Minister since July 28, 2017 has been creating hue and cry about alleged denial of right of fair trial. For him, holding meetings as head of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N) in Punjab House Islamabad or at other official places is, however, not denial of right of taxpayers. A ruling political party is required to conduct its affairs demonstrating transparency in all spheres of governance. Utilisation of taxpayers’ money for the benefit of masses is a sine qua non of every elected government. If public funds are misused for personal or party’s gains, it calls for end of the government. It amounts to violating the Constitution of Pakistan. Pilferage of taxpayers’ money — a scared trust — cannot be allowed under any circumstances. It is considered a serious crime in every society. If ministers, advisers and elected members of the ruling party spend taxpayers’ money for defending their leader for personal cases and holding party meetings, they are to be proceeded under the Constitution for disqualification. Opposition parties Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are also showing apathy on this issue and the media is least pushed to expose them for squandering public funds. Once a party succeeds in an election and gets the reins of governing the nation, party matters should be separated from day to day affairs of the government. All over the world, where democratic traditions are adhered to, this principle is closely observed as a result of which political parties remain strong — ensuring that their manifesto is not violated by their candidates chosen to run the state. They are accountable to party leadership. But if the disqualified ex-Prime Minister remains party chief then how can one expect good governance? In Pakistan this has been the case with almost every ruling party whether in the centre or in the province. Pakistan enjoys a unique position of having ‘democratic’ governments being a mix of democracy, dictatorship and monarchy. Though the representatives are elected through adult franchise, once elected, they completely surrender before party chief as unchallengeable and unquestionable authority. Party chief puts on the shoes of an autocrat and makes certain that the right to dictate remains his exclusive domain. Strangely even in such a situation, the political parties manage to keep their ‘popularity’ graph consistent and invariably win by-elections where they have government. Instead of spending lavishly on protocol, luxuries, comfort and security of ministers and parliamentarians and holding party meetings at taxpayers’ expense the government should pay more attention to the comfort and security of those who elected them to these offices with great hopes Under the laws of the land and in accordance with democratic norms and traditions, all political parties having the privilege of forming a government in the centre or in a province, are required to hold party meetings at the party premises or in the confines of members’ properties or at private places. The Presidency, the Prime Minister’s secretariat, Governor Houses — in fact all government premises — are run on taxpayers’ money which are meant purely for the functioning of the government and not for any activity that falls outside the precincts of official use. This principle has been violated time and again by leaders of the present ruling party in the centre and Punjab. The same is the case with PPP in Sindh and PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the past, then Public Accounts Committee chairman Chaudhy Nisar took strong exception to this violation in a meeting held on November 13, 2008 by observing, “PPP should not hold meetings at President or Prime Minister House. Such meeting should take place at the party’s office or Zardari House”. When his own party, PML-N, started doing the same after coming into power in 2013, the champion of accountability, transparency and self-declared ‘clean man’ never objected to the holding of meeting by PML-N in Prime Minister House — he rather attended the same in the capacity of a minster. Showing complete indifference to democratic norms and laws, meetings are continued to be held at premises run by taxpayers’ money. During the government of PPP (20018-13), party meetings were convened in President House as Asif Ali Zardari after taking oath of highest office of the country was also in the commanding position of the party. The same has been the situation with PML-N since 2013. It portrays even the worst possible scenario as Nawaz Sharif after disqualification is heading the party and holding meetings in Punjab House, Islamabad etc. By organising meetings in government premises, the public office holders are guilty of misconduct. They are accountable to the people of Pakistan with respect to the amount incurred during these meetings and other private functions. To avoid legal proceedings, they must pay back these sums to the government treasury from party funds. Already the people of this country are bearing a heavy load of the extravagant life-style of its ruling elite and bureaucracy. It will be totally unfair to increase their burden any further. The government instead of spending lavishly on protocol, luxuries, comfort and security of ministers and parliamentarians and holding party meetings at taxpayers’ expense should pay more attention to the comfort and security of those who elected them to these offices with great hopes and aspirations. Media has yet not made worthwhile attempts to expose with figures incidents of misappropriation of public money. Political analysts criticise rulers but seem to have no qualms about private political meetings held at the expense of the taxpayers’ hard-earned money. In civilised countries, there are stringent laws by which political parties have to file their income tax returns, account for all sources of donations and answer for any amounts paid by donors. On the contrary in this Land of Pure, candidates spend lavishly on election campaigns and once in power many make up for this money in ways which are not hidden from anyone. The writer, Advocate Supreme Court, is Adjunct Faculty at LUMS. Email: ikram@huzaimaikram.com; Twitter: @drikramulhaq Published in Daily Times, November 5th 2017.