A file photo of the provincial assembly. PHOTO: FILE
Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah and his cabinet refrained from attending the second consecutive legislative assembly session on Thursday, indicating fissures within the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.
The session was called by G-B Assembly Speaker Wazir Baig on a requisition moved by lawmaker Raziuddin and signed by 14 other lawmakers. Earlier, CM Mehdi had turned down a request to convene the assembly session.
“Legal action can be taken against Mehdi Shah and his cabinet for the boycott,” Baig remarked during the first session of the assembly on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Baig said that as speaker, he could call an assembly session on two grounds. “If a requisition comes, I am bound to call a session as the speaker. Similarly, the speaker can summon a session,” he said.
While Wednesday’s session was uneventful, Thursday’s session was attended by newly-appointed minister Didar Ali, who is yet to be allotted a portfolio.
“I think Shah and the others may not have been intimated about the session properly,” said Ali, in an attempt to justify the government’s absence.
In a prompt reply to Ali, Raziuddin said: “No, they have boycotted it because the session has been called against Shah’s consent.” Raziuddin, who recently joined the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was hoping to become a minister, but the CM preferred Didar Ali over him.
Both lawmakers had heated arguments during the session, which went on for several hours. Ali requested the speaker and CM Mehdi to reconcile and overlook their differences in the larger interest of public good.
Rahmat Khaliq, a lawmaker from Diamer district, said the chief minister and absent cabinet members should resign for shying away from public issues.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 26th, 2013.
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They are getting paid from the tax payers treasury, don't they. It is just shameful that these people go to the assemblies and then ignore why they were sent there in the first place. It is all about self promotion and grandizement.