Opposition starts protest camp outside K-P CM House

Protest ends after govt forms special committee to address demands

PESHAWAR: For the first time in the parliamentary history of the provincial assembly, all opposition parties have joined forces to camp outside the Chief Minister House to protest over how they have not been provided with development funds while the government works to hastily push legislation through the house while ignoring the opposition.

The protest only came to an end after the government agreed to set up a special committee to resolve issues of opposition members.

As they had announced a day ago, opposition members from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly camped outside the Chief Minister’s House for a marathon six hours on Tuesday.

During the protest, Awami National Party (ANP) Central General Secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain and central leader Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour also visited the camp and chastised the policies of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government.

ANP Parliamentary Leader Sardar Hussian Babak said that 44 opposition lawmakers who represent some 1.7 million voters, were deprived of development funds.

“We have rights on the resources of the province,” Babak said, adding that, “the chief minister has no right to push the opposition to the wall.”

He added that the Peshawar High Court (PHC) has also ruled against the government over the distribution of funds based on rules.

“The government should respect the court [orders] otherwise the opposition will protest in front of the CM House daily from 12pm to 6pm,” Babak said.

“There is a single-party government in the centre and the province but the government still does not issue the national financial commission (NFC) award,” the ANP leader lamented.

ANP leader Bilour, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Nighat Orakzai and other opposition lawmakers lashed out at the provincial government for its poor legislative performances and for neglecting the opposition in the provision of development funds.

They further claimed that people are dying in the province but the chief minister and the governor are busy hunting.

Orakzai condemned recent comments by Prime Minister Imran Khan about PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

Meeting with CM

K-P Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, though, dispatched a cohort of provincial ministers to parlay with the opposition protestors.

Opposition MPAs including ANP’s Babak, Khushdil Khan, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s Inayatullah, Munawar Khan and others attended a meeting with the CM and other provincial ministers including Law Minister Sultan Muhammad Khan, Communications and Works Minister Akbar Ayub Khan, Information Minister Shoukat Yousafzai, Food Minister Qalandar Lodhi, and the Principal Secretary to CM Shahab Ali Shah.

During the meeting, CM Mahmood said that they believe in uniform development of the province with a special focus on uplifting backward areas to ensure sustainable development.

Claiming that political favouritism and unjust distribution of funds will not be tolerated, he assured opposition members that due importance will be given to their opinions with regards to the development projects of the province.

Mahmood stated that a separate meeting will be held for devising a comprehensive and workable plan to resolve the pending issue of gas royalties in Karak.

Similarly, he assured that megaprojects will be launched in Karak for the provision of clean drinking water to locals.

The chief minister principally agreed with a proposal to form a ministerial committee for resolving issues of Karak and Kohat districts.

Moreover, Mahmood stated that separate meeting will be held about development projects in the newly-merged tribal districts (NMTDs) and that opposition lawmakers will be given a detailed presentation about the projects so that they can play their role in the completion of these schemes.

A separate meeting will be held on developmental schemes for southern districts wherein a strategy on completing priority projects will be discussed.

Later, while addressing a news conference after negotiations with the chief minister, Babak said that the chief minister and the government team had assured them that development funds will be distributed amongst the opposition members.

“They assured us that no constituency will be deprived of development funds and a committee has been set up to resolve issues,” Babak added.

Yousafzai said that that the problems between the opposition and provincial government will be resolved through mutual understanding.

He added that it is a matter of democracy that joint efforts should be made to sit together and resolve issues.

Furthermore, he said that no constituency will be deprived of funds.

“We want to work together [with the opposition], we all want the development of the province and after the formation of the special committee the working atmosphere in the assembly will become workable,” he hoped.

However, the protest only came to an end when the chief minister assured representatives of the opposition parties that their demands will be discussed in a meeting on Thursday and that a committee will be set up for the purpose.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2019.