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Thursday March 28, 2024

KP Assembly: Opposition members protest price hike

By Khalid Kheshgi
October 19, 2021

PESHAWAR: The members of the opposition parties in the KP Assembly on Monday protested the price-hike of edibles and the increase in prices of petroleum products.

The lawmakers of Awami National Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan People’s Party and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl while holding placards chanted slogans against price-hike.

They gathered near the dais of the speaker to record their protest. Earlier, the KP Assembly was told that the provincial government had allocated Rs100 million to establish Shamshan Ghats in various districts so that the Hindus and Sikhs could cremate their dead.

In response to a call attention notice, Adviser to Chief Minister on Minorities Wazir Zada said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had even identified land and places for the Shamshan Ghats in Hangu and Bannu districts where the local administration had imposed Section-4 for the purchase of land from the local people.

He said the government had allocated Rs100 million for this purpose as there were only two Shamshan Ghats in the province where the Hindu and Sikh communities performed the cremation and other last rituals of their dead.

JUI-F minority Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Ranjeet Singh moved the call attention notice, saying the Hindus and Sikhs covered a long distance to perform the last rituals of their dead at Khairabad in Nowshera and Kohat.

He said the government had reflected huge funds for Shamshan Ghat in the annual budgets for the last three years. The MPA said the government neither utilized the funds nor identified or constructed a special place for the cremation of their community members.

“Even the district administration has not imposed Section-4 for the purchase of land,” he said. He added the government should get on rent a place or building on a temporary basis as he had learned that the local community was unwilling to sell out the land for the sacred places of the Hindus and Sikhs.

Deputy Speaker Mehmood Jan Khan, who was presiding over the session, directed the government to resolve the matter at the earliest. Meanwhile, an important Bill pertaining to Land-Use and Building Control was presented in the House.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Regularization of Services of Employees of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas) Bill was deferred on the request of the minister concerned as he said its sections and clauses were being scrutinized. Afterwards, the speaker adjourned the assembly session until October 25.