KP govt paying for all MPAs visit to UK

Capacity-building

32 lawmakers have already paid visits in last three months

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government is financing the visit of all 124 Members of Provincial Assembly (MPAs) to the United Kingdom (UK) to enhance their capacity and knowledge.

According to the information obtained by The News, some 32 lawmakers went to the UK, Scotland and Isle of Man in the last three months.

Another batch of 11 legislators will go in December as per a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and the British Council in Pakistan. Under the MoU, the British Council will facilitate the MPAs in UK while the cash-strapped Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will finance the visit. 

The lawmakers will visit the UK in 10 groups. Each group will also have one or two officers from the provincial assembly secretariat.  Under a rough estimate, the visit of all the MPAs will cost about Rs40.97 million. The KP government would pay for their tickets and seven-day stay in the UK. An official of the provincial assembly told this scribe that under the rules each member would get $321 per day for the London trip for seven days while the air ticket would cost Rs165,000 from Pakistan. 

He said the trip of a single MPA would cost at least Rs400,935 (only air fare and accommodation) for seven days.When contacted, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser said the provincial government had signed an MoU with different organisations, including UNDP, British Council and European Union to develop the capacity and knowledge of the MPAs. 

“The decision was taken with the consensus of all parliamentary leaders in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly who proposed names of their respective MPAs for the visit to UK,” he said.

He added the Scottish and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies would soon become ‘sister assemblies’ under an MoU.However, an official of the provincial assembly secretariat claimed that the parliamentary leaders had pressured Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to announce provision of laptops and foreign trips for the lawmakers. 

“The chief minister didn’t accept the demand to give laptops to the MPAs as the provincial assembly had already put the latest systems on the desk of each member. So he pledged to provide financial assistance for their foreign trips,” he added.

Speaker Asad Qaiser, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, opposition leader Maulana Lutfur Rehman from the JUI-F, Nighat Yasmin Orakzai of the PPP and others have already visited UK under the programme.An 11-member group led by Senior Minister Inayatullah Khan, who belongs to the Jamaat-i-Islami, will visit UK this month. 

Other members of this group are provincial minister Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi from the PTI, MPAs Sahibzada Sanaullah (PPP), Gohar Ali Shah (ANP), Malik Riaz (JUI-F), Azam Durrani (JUI-F), Gohar Nawaz (Independent), Yasin Khalil (PTI), Dr Amjad (PTI), Nawabzada Wali Mohammad Khan and Saleh Mohammad Khan.

The first batch that visited the UK in September only had female lawmakers. The 10 women MPAs included Meraj Humayun, Uzma Khan, Naseem Hayat, Fauzia Bibi, Yasmin Pir Mohammad Khan, Rashida Riffat, Amna Sardar, Najma Shaheen, Ruqia Hina and Khatoon Bibi.

In the second batch, Aisha Naeem, Maleeha Ali, Dina Naz, Nargis Bibi, Mehmood Jan, Sultan Mohammad Khan, Maulana Fazl Ghafoor, Ahmad Khan Bahadur, Mohammad Ali and Zareen Zia visited the UK.  

In the third batch MPAs Sobia Shahid, Romana Jalil Jan, Fakhre Azam, Sheraz Khan, Khalid Khan, Bakht Baidar Khan, Fazal Shakoor, Anjum Tufail, Azizullah, Mohammad Ali and Aizazul Mulk Afkari visited UK in November.