Ziaullah Afridi in the House so that he could inform the members about the charges against him.
QWP’s Bakht Baidar said the father of lawmaker Gul Sahib Khan and PPP leader Liaqat Shabab were arrested by the Ehtesab Commission but were released by the Peshawar High Court on bail. “This showed that the charges against them were baseless,” he stressed.
Bakht Baidar said he was removed from the cabinet on charges of corruption and was fighting his case in the court, but despite the lapse of more than a year nothing has been proved against him.
However, Minister for Public Health Engineering Shah Farman defended the drive against corruption. He said an end to corruption was the main item of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) election manifesto.
Dispelling the impression that the government was victimising its opponents, he said the Ehtesab Commission was an independent body. He said the government had not issued the list of the corrupt persons.
Asking the opposition to make suggestions for bringing amendments to the Ehtesab Commission Act, he said there were shortcomings in the bill that needed to be removed. However, he said failing the process of accountability would be injustice to the people of the province.
He asked the parliamentary leaders to attend the meeting being held today to discuss the Ehtesab Commission.Education Minister Atif Khan also called for amending the Ehtesab Act. However, he said corruption was a major issue and its eradication was the top priority of the PTI-led government.
He said almost all politicians and governments wanted to eradicate corruption. He said there could be objection to the modus operandi of the commission and shortcomings in the bill, but the government didn’t believe victimising its opponents.
PTI dissident MPA Javed Nasim also supported the accountability process and said the corrupt would have to face the music. He asked those facing corruption charges to surrender and face accountability.
Giving his ruling, Speaker Asad Qaiser said he was not informed about the arrest of Ziaullah Afridi, who was a minister at the time and was fired when he was arrested.
The Speaker asked the government and opposition leaders and Ehtesab Commission representative to hold a meeting and also invite legal experts for bringing amendments to the Ehtesab Bill so that fair accountability could be ensured without any discrimination.
QWP parliamentary leader Sikandar Sherpao and ANP’s Sardar Babak also raised the issue of Provincial Management Service officers’ strike and asked the government to resolve it amicably.They said the government machinery would be paralysed if about 600 PMS officers went on strike.
However, Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani said the matter had been forwarded to the assembly’s select committee headed by Aneesa Zeb Tahirkheli and the PMS officers should wait for its report.He asked the officers to postpone the strike till the report of the committee is finalized.