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Dissent was once again witnessed in the ranks of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) legislators in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly after a PTI provincial cabinet member and four joint opposition legislators staged a walk-out from the House after the speaker did not allow them to take the assembly floor. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly on Friday resumed debate on the provincial budget for fiscal 2016-17 with Speaker, Asad Qaiser in the chair.
The opposition legislators participating on the second day of the budget debate included Sardar Hussain Babak of ANP, Sahibzada Sanaullah, Syed Sardar Hussain and Fakhar-e-Azam of PPP, Raja Faisal Zaman PML-N and Mufti Fazal Ghafoor of JUI-F while answers to their questions were replied to by Senior Minister for Local Governments and Rural Development (LG&RD), Inayatullah Khan and Education Minister Mohammad Atif Khan.
Although many opposition legislators in their speeches criticised the KP government over cuts in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) and receipts under the head of taxes and non taxes, but astonishing the most hard-hitting speech by a treasury member was from Mohammad Shakeel Khan a PTI Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) from Malakand district is also serves as the Special Assistant to the KP Chief Minister on Population Welfare.
Shakeel came hard on the budget, focusing on fund allocations of the four districts of Nowshera, Mardan, Swabi and Dir. He said that poverty and other problems are not limited only to the four districts, but Shangla, Kohistan and Malakand too are poor district.
He complained that as compared to the four districts, District Malakand is allocated meagre sums for development in all sectors. He demanded that constituencies ignored in past should be allocated maximum funds for development.
Shakeel also said, the people of KP had voted PTI into power for bringing change and eradicating corruption. He said that although reforms in the health and education sectors are in ongoing, steps for holding accountability are yet awaited. The Special Assistant further said, top slots of the two anti-graft agencies are vacant and no Director General (DG) Ehtesab Commission and Anti-Corruption Establishment appointed. He gave an ultimatum of two months to the provincial government for starting the accountability process in KP or else, he said after the expiry of his deadline, he will be left with no choice but to discontinue as member provincial cabinet.
Furthermore, in response to the hard-hitting speech by Sardar Hussain Babak of ANP, the Provincial Minister for Education, and Energy & Power, Mohammad Atif Khan said, that for first time in the history of the province, the private sector is being involved in hydel power generation sector. He said that private investors are also to invest Rs 1.5 billion for installation of hydel projects with a combined capacity for generating 518MW electricity.
He also clarified his position about converting Maktab Schools and establishing of smart schools in the province. He said that smart schools will be pre-fabricated and economical as compared to construction of buildings. He also dispelled the impression regarding award of contract for smart schools to any PTI supporter. The contract for construction of smart schools will be given through open tender and all interested parties will be invited to participate. In case of any complaints, the contracts he said will be annulled.
On the issue of decline in receipts in the current fiscal year, Senior Minister LG&RD Inayatullah said that 87 percent of finances in the provincial budget are dependent on the federal government, while the remaining is generated from resources within the province. He also said that absolute fairness in development allocations is difficult.
After the speech joint opposition members Maulana Fazal Ghafoor, Yasin Khalil and Qurban Ali and other PTI legislators too attempted to take the floor, but, the Speaker KP Provincial Assembly disallowed them. Later, the legislators of the joint opposition also joined the PTI legislators in their protest and walked out from the proceedings.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2016

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