KP oppositionMPAs withdraw resignations from standing committees

PESHAWAR: The members of the opposition in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly have withdrawn their resignations from the standing committees following successful negotiations with the government.

Chief Minister Mehmood Khan assured the opposition lawmakers that the government would allocate development funds for their constituencies. The opposition members' membership and chairmanship of different standing committees of the assembly were also restored.

The negotiations were held Thursday night, paving the way for the smooth passage of the upcoming provincial budget. Chief Minister Mehmood Khan assured the delegation of the joint opposition led by Akram Khan Durrani, belonging to the JUI-F, that the government would give them 35 percent development funds for their constituencies.

He said the opposition would not be pushed to the wall and their genuine demands would be accepted. He also assured the opposition of giving chairmanship of the District Development Advisory Committees (DDACs) to their members. The chief minister also assured the opposition that the recruitment of the class-IV employees would be made on the recommendations of the respective MPAs.

In response, the opposition announced withdrawal of their resignations from the standing committees and assured the government that they would not stage protest during the presentation of the 2019-20 fiscal budget scheduled for June 18.

Talks were held at the Speaker's House. Chief Minister Mehmood Khan, Speaker Mushtaq Ghani, Deputy Speaker Mehmood Jan, Finance Minister Taimoor Salim Jhagra, Law Minister Sultan Muhammad Khan, Information Minister Shaukat Yusufzai and Food Minister Qalandar Khan Lodhi represented the government while Akram Khan Durrani, PML-N's Sardar Mohammad Yousaf, ANP's Sardar Hussain Babak, Jamaat-i-Islami's Inayatullah Khan, PPP's Sher Azam Wazir and JUI-F's Mian Nisar Gul attended the meeting on behalf of the opposition.

Interestingly, the talks were held on the day the Peshawar High Court (PHC) suspended the appointment notification of three advisors and two special assistant to the chief minister while giving its verdict in the writ petition of Khushdil Khan of Awami National Party (ANP).

The joint opposition had resigned from the membership and chairmanship of different standing committees of the House as a mark of protest against cancellation of Khushdil Khan's chairmanship of the standing committee on agriculture and owing to the government's refusal to allocate development funds for the constituencies of the opposition members.

The opposition had also complained of being ignored in execution of the uplift schemes funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The joint opposition had time and again raised the issue of being ignored in the distribution of development funds. The issue had caused friction in the relations between the treasury and opposition benches and led to disruption in the assembly proceedings.

Opposition parliamentary leader Akram Durrani, who is a former chief minister, had refused to accept the allocation of Rs5 million development funds for his constituency in Bannu. He had made it clear he won't accept the offer until all the opposition members were given share in the uplift funds for their respective constituencies.