CM Mahmood tells opposition to talk out differences rather than going to court

K-P CM criticised the previous governments for never allocating any money for the tribal districts

PESHAWAR: The provincial assembly on Wednesday passed the budget and the finance bill for the fiscal year 2019-20 amid vociferous protest from the opposition parties which prompted a furious reaction from the chief minister.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly resumed the budget session on Wednesday morning with K-P Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ghani in the chair. K-P Chief Minister Mahmood Khan making a rare appearance in the house.

The house also sanctioned some 61 demand for grants in the final session worth Rs855 billion. The grants were approved under Rule 148, which relates to voting on demands for grants. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led provincial government utilised its superior numbers in the house to push the motions through.

The house also authorised the provincial government to utilise Rs23 billion rupees of the provincial consolidated fund by placing them at the discretion of the provincial government.

With the opposition leadership absent from the house at the onset of the session, K-P Law Minister Sultan Muhammad Khan said that he could use Clause 124 of the assembly rules to eliminate the opposition’s 680 cut motions

The speaker then used his authority and eliminate the cut motions.

This action infuriated the opposition who accused the government of ignoring their cut motions and proceeded to create an uproar in the house. Opposition members tore the copies of the agenda and started chanting against the government.

However, K-P Assembly Speaker Ghani remained unmoved and told the opposition leaders that it was too late now to deliberate over the demands and cut motions because they have already been eliminated.

Despite the uproar, the speaker went ahead with approving the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2019-20 and finance bill from the house.

Awami National Party (ANP) Parliamentary Leader Sardar Hussain Babak expressed his concerns over the provincial government’s attitude and stated that the PTI-led government has set a new precedent in the provincial assembly’s history that no cut motion was taken up by the house.

The budget is for the entire province and no member of the provincial assembly should be deprived of development funds, he said and urged CM Mahmood to look into the allocations himself.

Earlier, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Night Orakzai exchanged harsh words with security staffers of the assembly and asked the security chief to arrest the offending staffer.

During his budget conclusion speech, K-P Chief Minister Mahmood reacted angrily to the threats issued by the opposition a day earlier.

He stated that if the opposition goes to court against the provincial budget, the provincial government will have to play from the “front foot” against the political opposition.

He clarified that the provincial government will deliver on what they had promised, including development funds for opposition members.

Mahmood stated that this was a big day for the assembly as the first provincial budget of the new government had been approved and that this was the first provincial budget with funds for the newly-merged districts.

He expressed his resentment over how no member from neither the treasury nor the opposition benches had appreciated the efforts of the provincial government for including allocations for the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) for the very first time.

We appreciate the efforts of the federal government, security forces and the army chief — who sanctioned 20 per cent of their defence budget for the merged districts, Mahmood said.

The K-P chief minister criticised the previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) governments for never allocating any money for the tribal districts.

He pointed out that despite severe austerity, the provincial government had approved Rs236 billion for development programmes and a further Rs83 billion for ex-Fata instead of Rs24 billion.

Moreover, he stated that his government will complete this year the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project being built in Peshawar, the Swat Expressway, the command area of the Gomal Zam Dam, Chakdara-Chitral Expressway, Peshawar-Dera Ismail Khan Expressway and a special package for underdeveloped areas of the province.

Furthermore, Mahmood said that his government plans to expand the Sehat Insaf card to the entire province, apart from water and education projects and planting a billion trees.

The chief minister went on to term the protests and agitation by the opposition during the budget session as against the norms of the assembly as he slammed the PML-N and the PPP for attempting to defend those who have looted the country.

On the issue of development funds for opposition members, the chief minister urged them to negotiate with the government rather than pushing the government by going to court on every issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2019.