Split in half: Govt to present two much-hyped bills today

The house is unlikely to see the showdown expected after CM’s outburst against opposition parties yesterday.

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government will present the Right to Information (RTI) Bill, 2013 and Local Government (LG) Bill, 2013 before the house on Thursday (today).

The house is unlikely to see the showdown expected after the chief minister’s outburst against opposition parties on Monday, as Pervez Khattak met with opposition leaders in the opposition’s chamber of the assembly on Wednesday in what could possibly be an act of appeasement.

Following the chief minister’s speech, the assembly speaker had adjourned the session till Thursday. However, on Tuesday, opposition leaders held a news conference and castigated the chief minister’s remarks of a day earlier. This prompted the chief minister to try and cool down the heated atmosphere. ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak said Khattak met opposition leaders including JUI-F’s Maulana Lutfur Rehman and PPP’s Syed Mohammad Ali Shah Bacha in the opposition chambers.

Babak said the opposition will respect Pukhtun traditions and will not raise this issue in the assembly. He said the opposition and treasury members of the select committee formed to debate the RTI bill have discussed all amendments to the bill. However, there are still some clauses in the LG bill which both parties need to agree on.

Babak said it seems the government wants to bulldoze legislation on the LG bill, as it is going to present the bill before the house on Thursday.

He opposed the removal of union councils and said these councils have existed since 1959. The government and treasury lawmakers have yet to agree on proposed village councils and non-party elections for village and neighbourhood councils.

Sardar Aurangzeb Naulhota, a PML-N lawmaker who is a member of the select committee for the LG Bill, said the committee failed to agree on non-party elections and the issue of village councils. Naulhota said according to PTI leaders, party chief Imran Khan was not willing to accept these suggestions. He said the select committee, however, has managed to resolve some other issues.

Mohammad Ali, a JI lawmaker on one of the select committees, said the bill on the Accountability Commission would not be presented as senior minister Sirajul Haq was in Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st, 2013.