In K-P, opposition offers to help secure royalties

MPAs defy virus SOPs during K-P Assembly session

PESHAWAR:

In a rare moment of solidarity, opposition pirates in the provincial assembly on Friday offered the provincial government support in securing from the centre royalties for natural resources extracted in the province.

This offer was made during Friday’s session of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. The session was chaired by Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ghani.

Awami National Party (ANP) parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak said that the opposition benches are ready to help the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in securing royalties for gas, oil, power and other natural resources extracted from province.

Babak further inquired about the programme for the preservation of the Rani Naugram archaeological sites in Buner.

Responding to Babak’s query, provincial Labour Minister Shaukat Yousafzai said that the government is working on promoting religious tourism in the province and such sites will be preserved.Defying SOPs

With a decrease in novel coronavirus (Covid-19 cases in the province, precautionary measures against the virus were defied during Friday’s assembly session.

Most lawmakers arrived without face masks while they ignored many other restrictions such as social distancing.

The provincial government had previously deemed it compulsory for lawmakers to follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the virus during the assembly sessions.Islamic curriculum

The provincial government made changes to the fourth-grade Islamic studies course outlines and referred the matter to the K-P Assembly Special Committee.

ANP leader Khushdil Khan, through a calling-attention-notice, raised the issue that the provincial education department had introduced changes in the course outlines of the Islamic studies book.

He lamented that the leader of the house had directed the relevant department to probe the matter after it was originally raised in the house, but months later they are still waiting for an explanation.

K-P Law Minister Sultan Mahmood Khan has said that an inquiry report related to the changes in the course outline had been submitted to the chief minister. He assured that the necessary action will be taken against those responsible.Hospital performance

Provincial Health Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra informed the house about the situation in government hospitals of the province, especially in the wake of the pandemic.

He said that the situation has improved greatly. Jhagra added that following the MTI Reforms Act 2015, attendance of staff in the hospitals of Peshawar has increased considerably while other facilities have also been improved.

The provincial minister said that they could bring improvements to all hospitals if the reforms act is implemented uniformly in all hospitals.Earlier, K-P Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani expressed his reservations over the performance of the assembly staff.

The speaker said that question was not in order and some questions were missing from the agenda books.

Questions of different departments have been mixed up, he added.

He expressed displeasure over the negligence and summoned the relevant staff of the assembly.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2020.