Overview Print

The Secretariat of Provincial Assembly of the Punjab enjoys special status among all the other Government offices of Punjab on account of the fact that Article 87 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, read with Article 127, envisages that the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab shall have a separate Secretariat. The same Articles, read together, provide that the Speaker may make rules regulating the recruitment, and the conditions of service, of persons appointed to its secretarial staff. In exercise of this Constitutional mandate, the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab Secretariat (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1986 were made to govern the service matters of the employees of the Assembly Secretariat.

Financial Autonomy

The Constitution outlines the financial discipline of the Assembly. Article 88, read with Article 127, provides that the expenditure of the Assembly shall be controlled by the Assembly acting on the advice of its Finance Committee (comprising Speaker, Minister for Finance and Members of Assembly). The Finance Committee shall approve the Annual and Supplementary Budget Estimates of the Assembly and its Secretariat, which shall respectively be included in the Annual Budget Statement and the Supplementary Budget Statement by the Government. The Committee may, from time to time, approve incurring of additional or new expenditure in anticipation of provision of funds, for the Assembly or its Secretariat and the amount or amounts so approved shall be included in the Supplementary Budget.

Article 121 of the Constitution specifies the expenditures which shall be charged upon the Provincial Consolidated Fund and includes the administrative expenses, including the remuneration payable to officers and servants, of the Secretariat of the Provincial Assembly.