Walk in the park: Budget a breezy session for K-P govt

PESHAWAR:

This Ramazan, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly session is starting out as a walk in the park for the government as three opposition parties continued their boycott of the budget session. Like the first day of the budget session, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government hardly faced any resistance on Friday.

Qaumi Watan Party, the only opposition in the house, seemingly became more and more accommodating. The house passed 33 demands for grants with negligible resistance from QWP members who withdrew cut motions moved earlier.



In line with assembly norms, the session began an hour late with Minister for Law Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi being the first to present his demand for a grant. It was passed without any resistance as the cut motions submitted by the opposition lapsed due to the absence of party members.

MPA Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli, Meraj Humayun and Bakht Baidar were the only three resisting the treasury at the start of the session, but later ‘gave up’ and withdrew their cut motions on the speaker’s request to adjourn the session for Friday prayers.

Financing the finance department

Baidar objected to Minister for Finance Muzaffar Said’s demand of Rs3.9 billion for expenditures for his department. Baidar was not satisfied with the ministry’s performance, particularly with the lack of utilisation of development funds and moved cut motion which he later withdrew.

Responding to Baidar’s query, Said told the house the finance department only issued the funds and the executive agencies executed them.  “Last year, 69% of the ADP was utilised and this year I assure the house more than 90% of it will be used.”

Tahirkheli and Humayun also criticised the performance of the Information Technology department, moving a Rs100 cut motion each. Humayun said the department brought about zero change to the technological affairs of other government entities and quipped the department would not be affected if the grant was not released.

Minister for IT Shahram Khan Tarakai said, “We have computerised the workings of traffic wardens and the revenue department. We are working on the private sector and have conducted the digital youth summit.” He added, “A complete paradigm shift is required and will take place gradually.”

The demand for grant from the Home and Tribal Affairs department also faced token criticism from Tahirkheli who moved a Rs100 cut motion.

“The department has not come up with a plan to find an alternate to check posts in Peshawar and other areas,” she said. “Similarly, it failed in formulating a proper strategy for local government election security,” she said, asking for a direct explanation from the chief minister whom the department falls under.

However, CM Khattak seemed more interested in his conversing with fellow treasury lawmakers Mushtaq Ghani and Inayatullah Khan.

When he did speak, Khattak said he was satisfied with the police performance and elections were chaotic because 40,000 people were contesting. “How can a police constable control 1,200 voters at a polling station?” he asked. Khattak assured Tahirkheli of action against cops found misusing their powers or taking bribes.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2015.