Pandemonium in KP Assembly over non-release of funds

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday witnessed pandemonium when the opposition lawmakers staged protest inside the House for depriving them of foreign-funded projects.

It prompted Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani belonging to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to adjourn the session sine die. The members of the opposition parties including Muttahida Majlis Amal (MMA), Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) assembled in front of the speaker’s chair and chanted slogans against the PTI government for not releasing development funds and giving them a share in projects funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in the province.

In reaction, the treasury benches also shouted slogans and soon the assembly presented the look of a fish market. Also on Tuesday, the provincial assembly adopted an important resolution and some bills.

The combined opposition did not oppose the resolution condemning Indian airstrikes in Pakistan and it was adopted unanimously. However, the opposition MPAs opposed a bill with a ‘big no’. Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani approved the legislation amid uproar by the opposition. The PTI has a comfortable majority in the provincial assembly.

Awami National Party (ANP) parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak on a point of order said the opposition members had been deprived of all the projects under JICA whereas the ruling party lawmakers were awarded funds. “These funds and projects are not for a single party but for the whole province and the opposition parties raised this issue time and again but to no avail,” he said. He announced that the opposition would stage protest inside the House. Earlier, Speaker Mushtaq Ghani slammed the PPP parliamentary leader Sher Azam Wazir for using unparliamentary remarks on the floor of the House the previous day. “I will not allow you to speak as you have used very abusive and unparliamentary remarks,” the Speaker said while addressing the PPP leader. “If I had understood the meaning of your remarks spoken in the Pashto language I would have kicked you out from the House at that time,” the Hindko-speaking Speaker from Hazara said. “You have to seek an apology for your remarks,” the Speaker insisted.

When the PPP leader was given the chance to explain his position, he apologized for making the remarks he had used while referring to the arrest of Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). “I am sorry. I had spoken a Pashto proverb and you [the speaker] misunderstood it,” he added.