Austerity measures: PPP MPA’s request for travel allowance turned down

Orakzai had submitted an amendment bill in the K-P assembly.

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) law department has rejected Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Nighat Orakzai’s suggestion of providing travel allowance to members of the provincial assembly living within a five-kilometre radius of its premises.

Sources in the Civil Secretariat, Peshawar said Orakzai had earlier suggested amendments regarding the privilege of travel allowance for MPAs, and submitted a bill in the assembly secretariat for the purpose.



Orakzai had contended in the bill that MPAs living within a five-kilometre radius of the provincial assembly should also be granted the allowance, which is presently provided to other MPAs. Orakzai herself resides within the said vicinity.

According to an official of the law department, the bill was forwarded to the department which rejected it on the grounds that it would place an added burden on the provincial kitty. “Laws or suggested amendments should not be made for personal interests and the same is the reason for the rejection of the travel allowance bill,” he said.

Orakzai was not available for comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 26^th, 2013.

Peshawar