Agenda setting: Opposition submits requisition for session

Opposition has resolved to ask Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to secure a vote of confidence from the house.

PESHAWAR:

Opposition parties in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly are intent upon giving the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) a difficult time in the government, especially now that it is mired in increasing internal rifts.

Following the adage ‘strike while the iron is hot,’ the opposition parties on Thursday submitted a requisition to the assembly speaker to convene a session, citing an 11-point agenda which the opposition wishes to be discussed in the house.

Even though the agenda does not explicitly state it, the opposition has resolved to ask Chief Minister (CM) Pervez Khattak to secure a vote of confidence from the house.

Awami National Party parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak told The Express Tribune that aside from discussing the stated agenda, the opposition will demand that the CM prove his majority in the government after more than 20 PTI MPAs have expressed lack of confidence in the government. “After the formation of the forward bloc, the CM should prove his majority at the assembly floor through a vote of confidence,” said Babak.

The 11-point agenda includes the deteriorating law and order, talks with the Taliban and the K-P government’s role in them, the steps provincial government will take for the promotion of education in the province, unemployment, inflation and the government’s intended austerity measures.

Upon the submission of a requisition the assembly speaker is bound to convene a session within 14 days.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2014.