Gilgit-Baltistan: PAC chief removed from post

Legislator who threatened to blow up GB assembly removed from his post after he refused to publicly apologise.

GILGIT:

A legislator who threatened to blow up the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) has been removed from his post after he refused to publicly apologise.

Raziuddin, an independent lawmaker, who was appointed chairman of the public accounts committee (PAC) last year, was removed from his post after PAC members Bashir Ahmed, Yasmeen Nazar, Sheikh Nisar and Mutabiat Shah submitted a letter to the speaker, expressing no-confidence in the chairman after his threat.

“The committee has been dissolved with immediate effect after a majority of its members expressed no-confidence in the chairman through a letter,” the speaker of the legislative assembly said on Saturday.

Raziuddin was said to have made the threat during an assembly session after opposition leader Bashir Ahmed congratulated a lawmaker from Astore for his induction into the cabinet. “I will blow up the assembly and leave no one to run its affairs,” he was reported to have said, forcing the deputy speaker to adjourn the session.

Raziuddin said he had been promised a cabinet post in return for his vote in the election for the chief minister, speaker, deputy speaker and of the Gilgit-Baltistan Council.

Sources told The Express Tribune on Sunday that Chief Minister Mehdi Shah had quietly sent a delegation to the lawmaker’s residence late Saturday to convince him to tender an apology on his statement. But Raziuddin insisted: “I know what I have said, and I stand by my words.”

The government is also considering suspending his assembly membership if there was no change in his attitude.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2011.