PTI, PML-N MPAs exchange barbs in KP Assembly

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmakers exchanged barbs in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday over hoisting the party flag on the provincial legislature building. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser said that he had written a letter to the inspector general of police (IGP) to conduct an inquiry as to who had attacked and hoisted party flags on the building of the provincial legislature.

He was responding to a heated debate between PTI and PML-N lawmakers over the alleged attack on the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly building by PML-N workers.  The speaker said that being custodian of the House he had asked the provincial police chief to take action against those who had led and stormed the assembly building.

“This is our collective House where representatives of the whole province sit and legislate. Its disgrace would be considered as humiliation of the people of the province,” he stressed. He added that peaceful protest was the constitutional right of every citizen and political party, but nobody should be allowed to damage public or private property.

KP Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak said the provincial assembly was a sacred institution and its desecration was a crime in civilised and democratic societies. He asked the Speaker to take action against those who had attacked the provincial assembly building. “We should not take this issue lightly,” he added.

Parliamentary leader of Awami National Party (ANP) Sardar Hussain Babak, Nighat Yasmin Orakzai of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Senior Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Inayatullah Khan also condemned the violent protest outside the provincial assembly. 

However, the ANP and PPP legislators criticised the PTI leadership for announcing to hold a protest rally in Raiwind and said the major political parties were moving towards confrontation and politics of agitation.

PML-N MPA Raja Faisal Zaman said his party was not supporting or motivating its workers to attack institutions like the Parliament House and provincial assembly. “A particular political party has introduced the culture of attacking Parliament House, Prime Minister’s House and Pakistan Television building in the recent past. They are now planning to march towards the residences of their political rivals,” he added.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly unanimously passed a resolution, asking the federal government to build more entrance and exit points on toll plazas of Motorway between Islamabad and Peshawar and take back the increase of toll tax on Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway M-1.