KP Assembly demands LG elections under judiciary’s supervision

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Thursday asked the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold the upcoming local government elections under the supervision of the judiciary.
The demand was made as the House passed the resolution unanimously. Opposition Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) from Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Shah Husain had moved the resolution.
Earlier, members from the treasury and opposition expressed reservations over the plan to hold the LG polls under the supervision of district administration. They said the exercise would create doubts about the transparency of the elections.
Shah Hussain, who is representing the Battagram district, said the district administration was working under the provincial government and it may influence the election process. He felt this would put under question the fairness of elections.
Sikandar Sherpao, parliamentary leader of the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), not only opposed the elections under the administration but also said the seven days delay in official announcement of the result will create doubts about the transparency of the polls.
Syed Jaffar Shah of the Awami National Party, Raja Faisal Zaman of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Munawar Khan and Maulana Asmatullah of JUI-F also supported the demand for holding the elections under the auspices of judiciary and announcing the results on the same day.
They also debated the matter of holding the election on different days.Minister for Public Health Engineering Shah Farman said he agreed with the opposition’s arguments but the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should be consulted to know if it was possible to hold the polls on one day as holding the elections was the responsibility of the ECP.
Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Elections, Inayatullah Khan didn’t oppose the demand for holding the polls on the same day and under the supervision of the judiciary. However, he hastened to add that the House should adopt a joint resolution asking the ECP to accept the demand.
“I agree that holding elections under the supervision of administration will create doubts about the fairness of the polls and the people will point fingers at its transparency, but under the rules a letter should be written to the ECP whose consent is needed. It is the commission’s domain to conduct the polls,” he clarified.
As the members suggested adopting two resolutions — holding elections on the same day and under the supervision of judiciary — Speaker Asad Qaiser ruled that the matter should be discussed by the treasury and opposition members to go for a joint resolution.Later, he allowed Shah Hussain to move the resolution that demanded holding of polls under the judiciary. It was passed unanimously.
Minister Shah Farman, who had not opposed the resolution in the first place, termed the speaker’s attitude partial. He said allowing the opposition to move the resolution despite the treasury benches’ suggestion to adopt a joint resolution on both the issues showed the biased attitude [of the speaker].
“Despite belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), you are toeing the opposition line and are biased against the treasury,” PTI’s Shah Farman remarked.To this the Speaker remarked that being a senior leader of the PTI he knew better how to run the House.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmaker Amna Sardar presented the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Galiyat Development Authority (Amendment) Bill 2015.Jaffar Shah introduced The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zakat Internal Audit Staff (Regularisation of Services) Bill 2015.
Both bills were kept pending for discussion.MPA Uzma Khan of JUI-F presented a resolution demanding second shifts with rational fee in medical colleges of the province.She said due to limited seats in the medical colleges a number of deserving students remained deprived of medical education. She said these estudents were compelled to go abroad to acquire medical education which led to loss of millions of rupees to the exchequer.
However, Minister Inayatullah Khan, who had earlier served as a health minister, replied that the number of doctors had already increased due to mushroom growth of medical colleges in the public and private sectors. He said providing jobs to the doctors would become a serious problem in the next 10 years.
The minister said the rising number of medical colleges had negatively affected the quality of medical education leading to non-recognition of professional degrees abroad.Inayatullah argued that the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council rules suggested establishment of nursing schools along with medical colleges as services of nurses were needed more.
Former health minister Shaukat Yousufzai said the medical colleges fees should be regularised and fixed for both public and private sector colleges.
To a question by MPA Zarin Gul of the JUI-F about non-payment of money by Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) to the land owners of Achini Bala and another question by MPA Jaffar Shah about notices of closure served on private schools and hospitals in the University Town area, Minister for Local Government Inayatullah said committees had been constituted for proper solution to the matter.The speaker adjourned the House till Friday 2 pm.