PTI pacifies opposition lawmakers by promising development funds. PHOTO: AFP
PESHAWAR:
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led provincial government easily managed to get two of its much-hyped bills passed through the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assembly during the ongoing assembly session.
In Thursday’s session, the Right to Information (RTI) Bill 2013 and the Local Government (LG) Bill 2013 sailed through the house almost effortlessly. The RTI bill was passed unanimously while the opposition disagreed with only two clauses of the LG bill.
The opposition was expected to resist the two clauses of the LG bill which espouse the abolishing of union councils and non-party based elections for village and neighbourhood councils. However, what transpired in the assembly was probably a sigh of relief for the treasury benches.
Even though opposition leaders kept up their tirade against non-party elections, only a few dissenting voices were heard from the opposition benches when the assembly speaker put the clause to vote.
In the run-up to Thursday’s session
Interestingly, the opposition and treasury benches had a spat during Monday’s session over the issue of development funds. The issue has dominated house proceedings since its budget debate session.
In its election manifesto, the PTI had said it would not allow development funds to be given to lawmakers. Opposition legislators have protested over this on several occasions in the house.
On Monday, infuriated opposition lawmakers informed the house the provincial government had issued a notification containing the names of nearly 66 treasury bench members who will each get Rs10 million in development funds for their respective constituencies.
Opposition members then debated the issue and criticised the PTI government, saying it was going back on its own earlier stance on development funds. When the discussion seemed to be heading nowhere, Speaker Asad Qaiser asked Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to explain his government’s position.
Khattak had just entered the house and only managed to listen to a long diatribe of Awami National Party (ANP) parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak. Infuriated, Khattak told the opposition benches not to test his patience or he would spill their “dirty secrets.”
The CM castigated ANP and reminded the house of the previous ANP-led government’s alleged tales of corruption.
However, when the opposition lawmakers rose up to respond to Khattak’s outburst, Speaker Qaiser adjourned the session without mewntioning a reconvening time or date. It was learnt later the speaker had adjourned the session till Thursday (October 31) using his special powers.
The following day, opposition lawmakers held a news conference and criticised the CM for his remarks on the floor of the house. They also indicated they would go to court over certain clauses of the LG bill, on which the opposition and government had failed to agree upon in the assembly’s select committee.
A day after, the government and opposition leaders held a meeting with Pervez Khattak after a meeting of the select committee debated the Ehtisab Commission. The CM assured opposition leaders they would also be given development funds equal to the amount allocated to treasury lawmakers. The legislators then decided not to bring up Monday’s confrontation in the next session.
On Thursday, Pakistan Peoples Party leader Mohammad Ali Shah Bacha, on a point of order, informed the house an Urdu-daily had declared the opposition’s act of burying the hatchet as “muk muka”. He criticised the media, saying it should avoid painting lawmakers in a bad light.
Meanwhile, the session also turned out to be easy sailing for the government with its bills being passed without hassle as the opposition kept its criticism to lip-service and avoided unnecessary hue and cry.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2013.
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"In its election manifesto, the PTI had said it would not allow development funds to be given to lawmakers." We have known this for decades that giving tax payers money to the lawmakers for so called development purposes was the main cause of corruption, no records were kept and no audits were done and if done, it was glossed over. I am beginning to lose faith in IK and his party, it is becoming another corrupt party like the rest of them. Strangely enough I had suggested the same to Nusrat Bhutto in New York City in the early 80s, not to give any funds to party hacks when PPP was elected after the demise of that dictator Zia, my reason was the same then and the same now that it is a vehicle for corruption, she did not listen to some one as unimportant person like me. Well, I would say that these people in K-P did not come from Mars, these are the same people who were raised in a corrupt society and they just do what comes naturally to them. Most of the Pakistanis has no respect for their own constitution and laws and they say things to hood wink the populace and it seems PTI and Imran Khan is no exception.