KP Assembly witnesses pandemonium over Billion Tree Tsunami

PESHAWAR: A pandemonium marred the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly session on Friday as the opposition protested the government's delaying tactics to probe the alleged irregularities in the Billion Tree Tsunami project.

The postponement of the parliamentary committee meeting and visit to the plantation site vis-à-vis the assembly secretariat notification about the meeting postponement led to a heated debate and arguments among the treasury and opposition members.

Members from the opposition also questioned the role of the assembly secretary and criticised him for following the government agenda instead of being impartial.

Opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani said the parliamentary committee meeting was already scheduled and theopposition members had resigned from the standing committees and not from the parliamentary committee as propagated by the government.

He also questioned the assembly secretary's role and said that his stay on the post was violation of the high court decision. Durrani said some members of the parliamentary committee visited plantation sites in Bannu and found gross irregularities there.

There was not a single plant at the 1,200-kanal Sadakhel site shown in documents, he said and added that labourers were paid Rs10,000 which were shown as Rs15,000 in the documents.

Sardar Husain Babak of the Awami National Party (ANP) warned the government could not run the assembly for a while if the opposition does not cooperate. The joint opposition had clearly stated on the floor of the House that their members were resigning from standing committees and there was no mention of the parliamentary committee, then why the minister misled the assembly secretariat and media.

Inayatullah Khan of Jamaat-e-Islami also argued the already scheduled meeting of the committee can't be postponed on the pretext of chairman's unavailability. Senior Minister Atif Khan also endorsed the opposition's point, saying that if their resignations were not accepted, why the committee meeting was postponed. Perhaps Shaukat Yousafzai was busy in issuing statements about ministers' removal on basis of performance, he said in a lighter vein.

Speaker Mushtaq Ghani time and again asked the opposition to let the House continue proceedings on other agenda items and the Tsunami plantation issue be kept pending till Information Minister Shaukat Yusufzai's arrival who would reply to the questions.

The speaker admitted that he had not accepted the opposition members' resignation from standing committee when the opposition sought explanation whether their resignations had been accepted which is being made a pretext for cancellation of the parliamentary committee meeting.

Our Bannu correspondent adds: The 20-member committee of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly probing alleged corruption in the Billion Tree Tsunami project visited various sites and talked to the workers who have been hired to water and take care of the plants.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker had formed the committee to probe alleged corruption in the Billion Tree Tsunami project on the demand of the opposition.

The committee includes 11 members from the government and nine from the opposition. Some members of the committee, including Khushdil Khan, Sardar Yousaf, Sher Azam Khan, Lutfur Rehman, Aurangzeb Khan Nalotha, Shagufta and Rehana led by opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani visited Nalichak, Sadaykhel, Kasho Pul, Adimi and other places.

Talking to reporters, Akram Khan Durrani claimed that contrary to government claims about planning over one billion saplings, he said that about 200 million saplings had been planted and half of these had withered away.

He said the labourers were supposed to receive Rs15,000 monthly for watering and looking after the plants but they received less than that which amounted to exploitation. Akram Durrani claimed that a sapling available for Re1 was bought for Rs6 to Rs9. He added that saplings of eucalyptus had been planted instead of Shesham, Kikar and Shahtoot.