KP govt-bureaucracy tussle echoes in KP Assembly

PTI draws flak for failing to implement reform agenda

PESHAWAR: The ongoing tussle between the bureaucracy and provincial government echoed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday when a member of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) asked the chief minister to clarify his position in the wake of corruption charges against top bureaucrats and cabinet members.

However, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who unexpectedly came to provincial assembly after the tea break, didn’t speak a word about the report published in The News on Monday. The report generated a heated debate in the provincial assembly.

Opposition leader Maulana Lutfur Rehman and parliamentary party leaders of Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) also participated in the debate. They taunted the PTI-led provincial government for making anti-corruption laws in haste and then punishing those officials who wanted to implement the anti-graft laws in the province.

The PTI MPA from Nowshera, Qurban Ali Khan on a point of order said that the tussle between the top bureaucrats had exposed the provincial government.“We have been voted to bring about change and stamp out corruption from government departments and the society but I am sorry to say that our government is not implementing its agenda in letter and spirit,” the PTI MPA said while reading from the news report published in The News.

Qurban Ali, who has been leading the disgruntled members of the PTI in KP Assembly, was not allowed by the Speaker to raise this issue on the floor of the assembly soon after the session started. The tea break was apparently prolonged to convince the mover to drop his idea.

“You must come to my chamber and we will discuss this issue in detail,” were the remarks of Speaker Asad Qaiser to the PTI MPA Qurvan Ali Khan. The Speaker, who also belongs to the PTI, then adjourned the session for tea break.

In his reply to the point of order, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi told the House that the matter was extremely serious and the Speaker should form a special committee to probe the matter.

However, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who reached the House after tea break, instead of clarifying the stance of his government on the abrupt transfer of head of the Anti-Corruption Establishment said that the report about the Bank of Khyber (BoK) controversy would be shared with the provincial assembly members while a new law regarding the Ehtesab Commission would be tabled in the provincial assembly before expiry of the existing ordinance on accountability.

“We should not blame each other for the remarks that we make at party meetings or public gatherings. We have to make legislation and discuss serious matters in the assembly,” the chief minister said when the opposition members reminded him that his party had promised to stamp out corruption.

Maulana Lutfur Rehman, ANP’s Sardar Hussain Babak, PPP’s Nighat Yasmin Orakzai and PML-N’s Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha criticised the PTI-led government for failing to implement its agenda.

Earlier, Senior Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi and Bakht Baidar Khan of Qaumi Watan Party said that some bureaucrats were creating problems for the provincial government.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servants Retirement Benefits and Death Compensation (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was also passed unanimously by the House. It is meant to establish a fund for provision of benefits and compensation to the retired civil servants in the province.