Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in session. PHOTO: AFP
PESHAWAR:
An enquiry committee will be constituted to probe the transfer of the director of Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) and to look into the news reported in the media over the controversy behind the transfer.
The decision was made at a session of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmaker Qurban Khan raised the issue in the house through a point of order. He asked K-P Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser to refer the matter to a select committee of the house.
Earlier, a media on the transfer of ACE Director Ziaullah Toru reported a showdown between him and the chief secretary.
“Such accusations should be cleared when they come to the fore,” PTI lawmaker said.
“The whole house gets insulted over the allegations of the officers,” Qurban said. “I will suggest making a committee to probe the matter.”
When asked by the speaker, Minister for Law Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi endorsed Qurban’s suggestion to constitute a committee.
The opposition members, including Awami National Party MPA Sardar Hussain Babak, criticised the government for transferring the anti-corruption establishment director and the controversial reports published on the subject. “We hear and read in newspapers that whenever an official of the accountability body puts a hand on government ministers, they get transferred,” Babak said and sought explanation from Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.
The CM avoided discussing the fight between the chief secretary and Toru and focused his speech on the expenditures of development funds and the budget shortfall in the current year. “We hope to get 85% utilisation this year, last year we got 92% of the ADP utilised,” he said.
Provincial Civil Services
The house also asked the assembly’s standing committee on law reforms to call its meeting within four days to discuss the issue of the officers of the Provincial Civil Services (PCS) who are on symbolic strike and were planning to go on complete pen-down strike from Monday.
Leader of the Opposition Maulana Lutfur Rahman raised the issue in the house and asked the speaker to convene an immediate meeting of the committee which has gone into the background.
Minister for Mines and Mineral Development Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli, who chairs the committee, told the house that the Supreme Court of Pakistan has a case on the issue of the officers and the advocate general of K-P, a member of the committee, has asked the committee to stop working on the matter due to its sub judice nature.
The speaker then asked the advocate general to come to the house and the committee should hold its meeting within four days.
BoK controversy
About the Bank of Khyber issue, the government informed the house that the report by the cabinet committee will be presented in the house for discussion on Monday.
Irresponsibility decried
Moreover, happenings in the revenue department were also discussed. The speaker and government ministers were angry at the revenue department officials for not updating the house over the questions relating to the department. PML-N lawmaker Sobia Shahid’s question regarding land records’ computerisation needed further explanation.
Developments
The house passed the K-P Civil Servants Retirement Benefits and Death Compensation (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and handed over the K-P Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to the assembly’s select committee for detailed discussion and extended the K-P Universities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2016 for another 60 days through a resolution jointly passed by the house.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 4th, 2016.
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