KP Assembly postpones farewell session

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly wasn’t able to hold its farewell session as the proceedings that were due to be held on May 22 have once again been postponed due to unexplained reasons.

According to a fresh notification issued by the provincial assembly secretariat on Monday, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s session should be considered withdrawn.

It was believed that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government would present its short-term budget in the current session, but due to non-cooperation from opposition parties and its reduced strength in the assembly after the party chairman Imran Khan’s decision to expel 20 MPAs on charges of selling their votes in the Senate election, the session had to be postponed for the third consecutive time.

The session was first scheduled to be held on May 4, but the date was changed to May 14 and now the session that was supposed to be held on May 22 has been postponed without specifying a new date.

Pakistan People’s Party Member Provincial Assembly Ziaullah Afridi, who was elected on PTI ticket in the 2013 general election but was later expelled from the party when he was arrested by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission on corruption charges, had submitted a no-confidence motion against Speaker Asad Qaiser.

The treasury and opposition benches had also agreed to elect the deputy speaker during the current session.

The deputy speaker’s office had fallen vacant after Dr Mehr Taj Roghani was elected Senator on the PTI ticket.

Due to concerns that the no-trust move against the Speaker would succeed in case the opposition parties joined hands to unseat him, the provincial government kept postponing the assembly session.

The five-year term of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly would be completed on May 28. According to assembly rules, holding the current session is not possible.