Mocking birds: Opposition creates assembly within one

Disgruntled MPAs bemoan lack of treasury members attending session

PESHAWAR: Making a mockery of the government, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa opposition members started their own sitting in the house after the deputy speaker adjourned Tuesday’s session due to lack of a quorum.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Swat lawmaker Fazal Hakim pointed towards the incomplete quorum and Deputy Speaker Dr Mehar Taj Roghani adjourned the session till Friday. Opposition members were greatly annoyed over the adjournment and decided to hold their own session.

Awami National Party Parliamentary Leader Sardar Hussain Babak, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentary leader Sardar Aurangzeb Nalota and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl lawmaker Shah Hussain asked opposition members to start their own session. PML-N’s Nawabzada Wali Muhammad took charge as the mock speaker.

Babak lashed out at the government for not taking the house seriously and making a mockery of the proceedings. He told opposition members that MPAs were in attendance to present their areas’ and people’s problems, but the treasury benches failed to even show up.

He added millions of rupees spent on the session were being wasted owing to the lackadaisical attitude of the
treasury bench.

“Is this the change they have been shouting about and promising?” he asked. “Government benches never pointed towards an incomplete quorum, but they started something new,” the ANP leader said.

Babak slammed the chief minister for failing to present the Bank of Khyber report for discussion in the house.

“He promised to present the report, but disappeared after that,” he said. The MPA said government members were involved in high levels of corruption although they were the ones creating a hue and cry over eliminating it.

He said family of the slain minister for minority affairs, Sardar Soran Singh, had yet to be paid compensation and financial assistance as promised by the government on the floor of
K-P Assembly.

He challenged the treasury’s parliamentary leader to bring the former minister for mines and mineral development Ziaullah Afridi to the house.

“He is a member of the house and has the right to be brought here and heard,” he said. “We had a member with a murder FIR against his name, but he was allowed to attend the proceedings.”

Nalota and other members of the opposition shouted slogans of “chor machaaye shor” in the house. The PML-N leader was the first person to start mocking the government and pointing towards the empty treasury seats as he stood to speak on a point of order.

“I congratulate Imran Khan for bringing this change,” he said. He then brought forward the issue of corruption in the K-P revenue department, saying patwaris were taking bribes to transfer property and making their own posting through money.

Minister for Education Muhammad Atif Khan assured of an enquiry into the matter and asked the senior board of revenue member to take action in the case.

Atif, meanwhile, took a swipe at Nalota’s PML-N and pointed towards false promises to end load-shedding.

PML-N lawmaker Abdul Sattar Khan drew the house’s attention towards the lack of facilities at basic health units and rural healthcare centres. He slammed authorities for turning their back on BHUs and RHCs.

“We asked the health minister to fix the issue and he replied that a relevant policy has yet to be made,” he said. Finally, Babak raised the issue of the Provincial Civil Service officers’ strike and the education minister said the chief minister and chief secretary were negotiating the subject with officials on a war footing.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2016.