Opposition walks out of KP Assembly over ‘discrimination’

PESHAWAR: Opposition in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly walked out of the House on Monday after accusing the chief minister and speaker of discrimination.

Munawar Khan of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) on a point of order said that the chief minister had given him time for listening to remove his reservations over the budget, but on August 12 when he along with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) parliamentary leader Muhammad Ali Shah Bacha visited the chief minister, he didn’t meet them. He walked out of the House as protest against the chief minister. The opposition members, including parliamentary leader of the Awami National Party (ANP) Sardar Hussain Babak followed him.

Talking to reporters, Sardar Hussain Babak said that not only the chief minister but the speaker was also running the House like a public meeting of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). He said the opposition would protest such behaviour.Minister for Public Health Engineering Shah Farman tried to convince the opposition to come back to the House when Mufti Fazal Ghafoor of the JUI-F pointed out to the lack of quorum.

The speaker ordered ringing of the bells for two minutes and then adjourned the session till August 25 as only 29 members were present, leaving incomplete the long agenda, including two bills.

Earlier, the House unanimously adopted a resolution of Arbab Jehandad of PTI about the Tobacco Board. The resolution said that though KP was producing the best quality of tobacco and was the main tobacco growing province, its growers were faced with problems and that was the reason the board affairs should be handed over to the provincial government.

The speaker referred to the committee concerned a call attention notice of MPA Mian Ziaur Rehman. It was about the delay in the establishment of New Balakot City. He said that following the 2005 earthquake, the government announced construction of a new city for the residents of Balakot, which was destroyed in the earthquake. However, work on the new city was yet to start and the affectees were still living in temporary shelters despite passage of 11 years, he complained. He added the government had banned construction on the site of old Balakot city, terming it fault zone.

Minister Shah Farman, however, assured that the provincial government would take concrete steps after knowing the real situation as to why the past governments didn’t execute the project and who had released funds for the new city.