File photo of K-P Assembly. PHOTO: AFP
PESHAWAR: The provincial government on Tuesday withdrew a bill for Shias following strong protests from the opposition. It decided to send the bill to the Council of Islamic ideology (CII) for clearance again.
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly resumed on Tuesday afternoon and was presided by Speaker Mushtaq Ghani.
As the ‘The Muslim Family Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019’ was tabled in the house on Tuesday, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Pakistan (MMA-P) leader Inayatullah Khan said that the method for divorce indicated in the bill was against Article 230 of the Constitution.
He demanded that the matter should be referred to the CII, adding that it was the matter of religion and must be dealt with carefully.
Responding to Inayatullah’s concerns, K-P Local Bodies Minister Shahram Khan Tarkai assured the house that the CII had already cleared the bill without any objection and asserted that there was no discrepancy in it while it had been presented in light of orders form the high court.
Law Minister Sultan Muhammad Khan stated that the opposition did not have the necessary numbers to refer the bill to the apex Islamic body.
This, however, failed to deter the opposition who kept pushing for referring the bill to the Islamic council.
Trakai relented and said that to satisfy the opposition, the government will refer the bill to the CII again for clearance and that the bill will remain on hold until it is cleared.
The provincial assembly, though, did approve the K-P Journalist Welfare Endowment Fund (Amendment) Bill 2019.
Under the bill, the government will establish an endowment fund for the welfare and wellbeing of journalists.
Awami National Party (ANP) leader Bahadur Khan presented a call-to-attention notice (CAN) in which he highlighted the land dispute between the Nawab of Dir and his former employees in Jandol area within PK-16 constituency. Bahadur claimed that locals were facing difficulties and demanded the government address the issue. The matter was referred to the relevant committee of the assembly.
Deteriorating environment
ANP leader Shagufta Malik tabled a CAN over rising pollution in the provincial capital. She claimed that Peshawar had been declared as the second-most polluted city in the world by the World Health Organisation (WHO) while the World Economic Forum (WEF) had also declared the current levels of smoke and dust in the city as dangerous.
The lawmaker added that the health of the city’s residents is being affected due to the Hayatabad Industrial Estate and that the environmental department should take measures to shift the industrial zone away from residential areas.
Responding to the notice, the provincial law minister said that the report which was being cited by the lawmaker was 15 years old.
He added that the government will take action against industrial units which were polluting the environment.
Traffic issues
Presenting an adjournment motion, MMA-P leader Mian Nisar Gul said that regular traffic jams on the university and Grand Trunk (GT) roads create immense difficulties for the public as a distance of merely 15 minutes takes hours to cover. Such was the problem that motorists are compelled to leave their vehicles and walk to their destinations, he complained and demanded that the government solve the problem.
Responding to the motion, Sultan said that the provincial government was managing traffic in the city. He admitted that traffic jams are being caused by construction work on the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) project.
NFC implementation report
The provincial law minister presented two statutory reports on the implementation of the NFC award for July-December 2017 and the annual report on the Observance and Implementation of the Principles of Policy for 2017.
Meanwhile, Nighat Orakzai of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) strongly reacted against a proposed amendment to include the assembly’s deputy speaker in the PAC and the authority to chair its meeting in absence of the speaker.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 25th, 2019.
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