Opposition fumes as Speaker ends BTT probe panel

Mushtaq Ghani states commission had a time limit of a month and no meeting was held during that time

PESHAWAR: Opposition members in the provincial assembly on Friday staged a protest against the government after a parliamentary committee — formed to probe alleged irregularities in the government’s Billion Tree Tsunami (BTT) project — was declared to have completed its term without even holding a single meeting.

Instead, the opposition announced to unilaterally create a commission to probe the project and the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project being built in Peshawar.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly resumed on Friday with Speaker Mushtaq Ghani in the chair.

On a point of order, the Leader of the Opposition in the K-P Assembly Akram Khan Durrani stated that the provincial government had formed a commission to probe allegations of corrupt practices in the billion tree tsunami project.

“But we have not seen any headway being made in affairs related to the commission,” the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) chief said.

“We have been pressing to hold a meeting of the commission this week,” the former K-P chief minister said, adding that unless the allegations were probed, any forest in the province could be set ablaze to cover up any trace of corruption in projects.

While answering questions raised by Durrani, K-P Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai explained that during the last tenure of the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, they had introduced two mega projects in the province, including the BTT and BRT.

Billion tree tsunami on altar of sacrifice

He argued that the BRT project built by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government in Lahore cost far more than their project in Peshawar.

Responding to the issue of holding a meeting of the parliamentary commission on the BTT project, Yousafzai said that opposition members had tendered their resignations from all parliamentary committees of the provincial assembly. Hence, no meeting of the parliamentary commission had been called.

Now, he said, the commission formed by the K-P assembly had completed its tenure.

On the question of investigating the BRT project, the information minister said that the project is not yet complete and that it can be probed once it is finished.

Regarding the corruption allegations, Yousafzai said that if the opposition has evidence, they were free to take their case to the apex anti-corruption watchdog National Accountability Bureau (NAB) or even to the courts.

“The courts and media are free in the country,” he stated, adding that the country was currently being crushed under the burden of foreign debts which had been taken due to the corrupt practices of past governments led by the PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

“The current government led by the PTI has started a process of holding the mafias accountable, which is why a political upheaval has been brought from the opposition benches,” he stated.

Durrani posed that the reason for not calling a meeting of the commission was that Prime Minister Imran Khan had allegedly opposed it. He added that since the commission had been formed by the provincial assembly, the provincial information minister cannot simply abolish it.

Yousufzai trashes criticism against Billion Tree Tsunami project

“No timeframe was set for the commission,” Durrani contended. He added that such was the pace of work on the BRT that it had been occupied by the barbers.

He warned that the opposition will form its own commission for probing corruption charges into the project.

The opposition leader further reminded the PTI-led government that in the upper house of parliament, the opposition greatly outnumbered the government. He accused the PTI government of attempting to buy opposition members in horse-trading.

Yousafzai, though, retorted that the commission was indeed time-bound. Noting that the issue of removing Senate chairman had no bearing with the business of the provincial assembly, he stated that those who had elected two senators through four MPAs from the province know who had voted against their conscience.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2019.