The caretaker governments of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) are heading towards a possible financial shutdown, as the period of one-time authorisation of the expenditure for four months will end later this month.

According to Article 126 of the Constitution, a caretaker government can only authorise four-month expenditures from the Provincial Consolidation Fund in any financial year, and that, too, for one time only. The Punjab and K-P caretaker cabinets used the authorisation in the third week of June this year.

That authorisation is the four-month budget approved under Article 126 of the Constitution. It was claimed at that time that on the expiry of the four months, the respective governments would bring a new four-month budget.

Article 126, titled “Power to authorise expenditure when Assembly stands dissolved”, reads: “Anything relating to financial matters, when the Provincial Assembly gets dissolved, the Provincial Government may sanction expenditure from the Provincial Fund in respect of the expenditure for a period not exceeding for a quarter of a year in any fiscal year, pending completion of the procedure prescribed in Article 122. , by the provisions of Article 123 about the expenditure.”