KP Assembly witnesses hullabaloo on fifth consecutive day

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly once again witnesses hullabaloo as the opposition continued its protest for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday.

Just after the recitation from the Holy Quran, Speaker Mushtaq Ghani continued to run the agenda proceedings and declared the questions lapsed in the absence of opposition members. The joint opposition entered the House with shouting of ‘No’ No, and started thumping desks. They paid no heed to the speaker’s announcements of ‘order in the House’. He also put to vote three bills amid deafening noises and shouting.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Charities (amendment) Bill, 2020; the Kaghan Development Authority Bill, 2020 and National Disaster Management (KP) (amendment) Bill, 2020 were adopted with majority midst the uproar.

The treasury benches reciprocated the opposition chanting of slogans and thumping of desks. Before adjourning the sitting till Monday, the speaker asked government to hold talks with the opposition to bring an end to the ongoing protest and mayhem in the House.

However, later talking to media Sardar Hussain Babak of the Awami National Party (ANP), accompanied by Nighat Orakzai of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Sardar Yousaf of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and other opposition members said their protest was not only against the government but also against the speaker. He said the speaker was partial and was following the government dictates.

The speaker should act as custodian of the House instead of a PTI worker, he added. He said the government was incapable of running the affairs through debate in the assembly but wanted to bulldoze bills on the basis of majority. It was the fifth day of opposition’s protest, but neither the chief minister nor the speaker were serious about this situation and the CM even did not come to the assembly.

The opposition held talks with government four times but the latter did not honour its commitment, Babak said, adding lawmakers from the treasury were uncivilized and unaware of ethics on how to respect senior members and used to misbehave with women members. He warned of intensifying the opposition protest from Monday. Talking to media persons, Minister for Information Shaukat Yousafzai termed the opposition’s protest baseless, saying they had no genuine issue but just wanted to disturb the assembly proceedings.

“They will have to apologise to the speaker as keeping dignity of the chair was a must in democratic norms,” he demanded. He said some opposition members were bent on creating disturbance and had no interest in the assembly proceedings.