Opposition asks speaker to ensure ministers' presence

Committee to be formed to resolve Quetta bypass land issue

QUETTA: Irked by the absence of ministers, the opposition in Balochistan Assembly on Monday urged the speaker to take notice of the matter and ensure their presence for answering the queries of the members.

Speaker Abdul Quddus Bizenjo said that ministers and departments concerned should take seriously the questions raised by the members of the assembly.

Former chief minister and provincial assembly speaker Mir Jan Muhammad Khan Jamali said the treasury is answerable to the house, adding that it was the responsibility of the government to answer the members’ questions.

To this, Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Minorities Affairs Dinesh Kumar said he would respond to the queries asked by the opposition.

Opposition members Sanaullah Baloch, Mir Ahmed Nawaz Baloch, Fazal Agha, Akhtar Hussain Langove and Nasarullah Zerey said it was not the first time that ministers were absent during the question hour.

“It has become a routine and the departments concerned were not serious to reply to the questions,” they said.
During the session, the speaker called for constituting a committee to “pleasantly” resolve the land issue of Western Bypass.



 

The decision came after former minister for local government and rural development Sardar Muhammad Saleh Bhootani said a “committee of the house should be formed to resolve the issue”. He said the rights of the local tribes would be defended.

“There is no compromise on the issue,” he said, adding that the situation in Balochistan is different from Karachi and Lahore.

The issue was raised by former chief minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, saying that the Quetta deputy commissioner had sent a notice to land owners of the Western Bypass area, asking them to vacate the land as it was owned by the government.

He said that a committee of the house comprising government and opposition member should be formed to resolve the issue amicably.
Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) leader Malik Naseer Ahmed said that people who were being served notices had been living in the area for the past 80 years and cultivating the land as owners.

 

Naseer said that a committee formed by the provincial assembly in 1992 on the issue had reported in  favour of the farmers.

The BNP-M leader said that part of the land was allotted to some government department when late Mir Taj Muhammad Khan Jamali was chief minister but the Balochistan high Court had annulled the allotment.



 

“The government should avoid taking such measures,” he said, adding that in the past bloody clashes had occurred on land issues.

Jamiat UIema-e-Islam-Fazl leader Fazal Agha and Pashtunkhwa Mili Awami Party leader Nasarullah Zeeray supported the stance taken by Raisani and Naseer. They said that there is no government land in that area and different tribes had been residing there for centuries.

“Many houses were demolished by the local administration in the Eastern Bypass area,” Zeeray said, adding that dislocation of local tribes is illegal.

Another BNP-M member, Ahmed Nawaz Baloch, also demanded that the government should compensate according to market rate the people whose land was acquired for Sabzal Road.

The chair also allowed an adjournment motion of a PkMAP leader regarding a recent bus fire incident, which claimed 28 lives in Lasbela district. Debate on the motion will be held on Wednesday.