In response: Session allowance of 43 opposition lawmakers withheld

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Secretariat has withheld the session allowances of opposition parties’ lawmakers who boycotted the budget sessions. 

At least 43 lawmakers from four opposition parties, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Awami National Party and Pakistan Peoples Party, who walked out of the budget session on July 15 and remained absent for the following budget-specific sessions were not given session allowances. However, MPAs from Qaumi Watan Party were paid their due allowances, officials told The Express Tribune. They stayed back till the end of the session on the budget day but boycotted the budget sessions that followed.



QWP is likely to re-join the provincial government after Eidul Fitr.

Cause and effect

Each member is entitled to get Rs15,000 for nine days but those who boycotted will not be paid, along with the travel allowance. Even those MPAs from opposition parties who marked their attendance and were present at the sessions for a short time were not given the allowances.

An official at the assembly secretariat, who wished to remain anonymous, said only those MPAs who attended session properly were entitled to such allowances.

However, the issue would be discussed in the next session that is to be held after July 28. The MPAs who were not paid include 17 from JUI-F, 16 from PML-N whereas five each from PPP and ANP were not given their allowances.

The opposition parties boycotted the budget sessions that started on June 15 and went on till June 23. They did so to register their protest against rigging during the local government elections held in the province on May 30.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2015.