In session: Opposition leaders irked over CM’s absence from assembly

The house was to discuss law and order but ended up talking about sexual harassment.

PESHAWAR:

Members of the provincial assembly were set to discuss Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s law and order situation on Tuesday till they got there.

Once inside the assembly, the opposition refused to open the floor to debate without the presence of the chief minister, home secretary and police chief. They were then left to discuss the issue of sexual harassment of female students at the University of Peshawar.

The session started an hour behind schedule at 4pm, when Deputy Speaker Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi asked the leader of the opposition, Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), to open the floor to debate. Members of the opposition refused to start the debate till Chief Minister (CM) Pervez Khattak, the home secretary and provincial police chief got there.

Awami National Party’s parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak pointed out that the law and order situation of the province was at its worst and it was unfortunate that the police chief, home secretary and CM were not attending the highest forum of the province to discuss it. He said a war was going on outside the capital and in such a situation the opposition was not ready to discuss law and order without them. He added that this reflected the government’s non-serious attitude.

Provincial information minister Shah Farman tried to convince the opposition leaders to start the debate by claiming that the CM was in Islamabad for two days and would join them on the last day.

Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Nighat Orakzai opposed Farman’s contention and said that opposition leaders would only make a speech when the leader of the house is present. Deputy speaker Shahid also supported the opposition’s plea and regretted the officials’ absence. He said the IGP and home secretary were informed of the session a day in advance to ensure that they would be there. The session was then adjourned till Thursday.

Sexual harassment at UoP

After a lengthy debate, the deputy speaker formed a special committee to investigate allegations made by a female student about sexual harassment by the faculty at University of Peshawar (UoP). The issue was raised by Orakzai on an adjournment motion. In her speech, Orakzai said that teachers were sexually harassing female students at UoP and she had also raised this issue in the previous assembly session, however, the issue could not be concluded properly. She demanded the government to take immediate action.

Orakzai added that in 2010 a committee was formed by the then chief minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti to investigate the issue after she pointed it out. She added that those involved in the deed were known to everyone. However, adviser for higher education, Mushtaq Ghani asked Orakzai to sit with him and solve the issue instead of debating such a sensitive issue on the floor of the house. Orakzai was not satisfied with this, and with support from other opposition leaders, she continued to press the treasury to refer the issue to a standing committee.

She was backed by Qaumi Watan Party’s parliamentary leader Sikandar Sherpao, Munwar Khan and even Farman. Sirajul Haq, the minister for finance, however, pointed out that under assembly rules an issue must be a current one to be taken up under an adjournment motion. However, QWP’s Sultan Mohammad Khan, Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli and opposition leader Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan opposed his contention and backed Orakzai. After being cornered by the house, Sirajul Haq said that investigation should be carried out in such cases where there is a claimant, and instead of waiting for an assembly session, the issue should be raised with the concerned department.

The speaker later formed a special committee comprising Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, Nighat Orakzai, Uzma Khan, Dina Naz, Ayesha Naeem, Sobia Shahid, Rashida Riffat, Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli and Shah Farman to investigate the issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2014.