Deaths of patients at KTH: Opposition members in KP Assembly stage protest outside CM House

PESHAWAR: The joint opposition in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly staged a sit-in in front of the Chief Minister's House here on Tuesday as a mark of protest against the government.

Setting up of the protest camp on the road in front of the CM House was announced at a meeting of the opposition parties on Monday to protest the deaths of seven patients at the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) due to shortage of oxygen.

A large number of lawmakers from the opposition parties, including Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), Awami National Party (ANP) Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) participated in the sit-in wherein a sound system was installed to play the anthems and poems of the respective political parties. The protest camp also demanded release of uplift funds for opposition lawmakers, condemned the behaviour of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and sought resolution of grievances of the MPAs.

Addressing the sit-in, Inayatullah Khan of JI said the government had failed on all fronts and the chief minister did not look beyond his own constituency in Swat. Sardar Hussain Babak of ANP said the camp would continue daily from 10am to 5pm. “Today 45 MPAs are sitting in front of the CM House but this number would swell as political workers would join us if the government did not release equal development funds for the constituencies of the opposition lawmakers.

He said that being a custodian of the House the speaker should not wear the PTI cap. He said the roads in the constituencies of the lawmakers from the opposition needed repairs. He said the residents of the areas producing natural gas weren’t being provided this facility.

PML-N’s Sardar Mohammad Yousaf said PTI leaders were incapable of running the affairs of the government as the innocent patients died from the shortage of the oxygen supply at the KTH.

Maulana Lutfur Rahman of JUI-F said lawmakers were compelled to stage the protest near the CM House because of the injustices they were facing. The protest was aimed at getting rid of the inefficient rulers, he said, adding, those talking of good governance had broken all the records of corruption.

PPP’s Ahmad Kundi said the opposition legislators were not given importance in the assembly. Nighat Orakzai of PPP demanded that Health Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra should resign and rejected the report of the inquiry committee constituted by the Board of Governors of KTH. She said opposition members should be provided equal funds as the exchequer did not belong to the treasury benches.

JUI-F’s Naeema Kishwar of JUI said the government was afraid of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). While referring to a man from Charsadda who had brought a complaint to the protest camp against the police for not lodging his FIR, Sobia Shahid of PML-N said women were not safe in their homes in the rule of PTI government.

She said the complainants turned to the opposition due to the government's negligence. KP Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, who has been facing criticism from the opposition, visited the sit-in and met the protesting MPAs. The lawmakers were served with tea and biscuits from the Chief Minister’s House.