Claim: Ten billion rupees out of 21 billion rupees, has been released for the Election Commission of Pakistan to conduct the Punjab Assembly elections. The rest of the funds will be disbursed once the KPK Assembly elections are scheduled.
Fact: The Ministry of Finance has not yet released any funds to the Election Commission of Pakistan for the Punjab elections.
On 8 April 2023, several people tweeted that the Ministry of Finance had released 10 billion rupees for the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold the Punjab Assembly elections. Some tweets claimed that the Ministry of Finance had released 10 billion rupees following a Supreme Court order so that the Punjab Assembly elections could be held on 14 May 2023.
Other tweets claimed that the ECP’s complete requirement was 21 billion rupees, out of which only 10 billion have been released so far.
Another variation of this claim said that after 10 billion rupees were released for the Punjab Assembly elections, another 10 billion will be released after the KPK assembly elections are also scheduled.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check decided to verify these claims regarding the disbursement of funds to the ECP. After reviewing several mainstream news organisations’ websites and going through the press conference conducted by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, it was evident that the Supreme Court has issued an order mandating that the Ministry of Finance releases an amount of 21 billion rupees for the Punjab provincial assembly elections by 10 April 2023 and that an amount of 10 billion PKR has not been released as of yet.
According to Dar, these 21 billion rupees are solely reserved for the Punjab assembly elections. During the press conference he did not mention anything about when any funds will be released for the KPK provincial assembly election since that is a matter still under discussion.
Several news organizations such as The News International, The Express Tribune, ARY News, and Dunya News reported that the prime minister has called for an emergency meeting of the federal cabinet on 9 April 2023 at 2 PM to discuss the release of funds for the Punjab assembly elections and whether the decision by the Supreme Court should be opposed, amidst other things.
On 9 April 2023, it was reported by Geo News that the ECP is unlikely to receive funds by the stipulated deadline of 10 April. On 11 April 2023, Dawn News reported that following the procedure prescribed by the Supreme Court order, the government has not issued any funds to the ECP and that the Parliament’s standing committee is set to reconvene on this matter on Thursday, 13 April 2023.
Therefore, news of the release of 10 billion rupees shared on 8 April 2023 is false.
Virality
This claim was shared on Twitter here, here, here, here, here, and here.
The same claim was shared on Facebook here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: Election Commission of Pakistan did not yet release 10 billion rupees for the Punjab Assembly elections.