Treasury, opposition join hands for pleasant environment

Treasury and opposition of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Wednesday joined hands maintaining decorum and running the proceedings of the house in a peaceful and pleasant environment. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly had witnessed worst commotion Tuesday; the four legislators belonging to treasury benches entered into physical brawl in the province prompting the Speaker to adjourn the proceedings of the house.
The Leader of Opposition, Maulana Lutf-ur-Rehman took the floor on a point of order to condemn the Tuesday incident. The provincial assembly, he said is consultative forum were provincial issues are discussed and budget is approved. He said that members of the house can highlight deficiencies and flout proposals for bringing improvement in the budget in the house. However, he said situation witnessed in the house the other day had never happened. He criticised the members of treasury benches for lacking tolerance and not ready to hear criticism.
The opposition leader said that the situation has become so worse that the treasury benches MPAs were even not ready to hear their own leader of the house. He expressed sorrow over the matter that in response to the speech of the opposition leader a minister took the floor and declined to hold consultations and vowed to sack the services of government employees. The house, he said could not be run in such autocratic manner, saying the stoppage of such incidents is the responsibility of the Speaker. He expressed the hope that in future the government will pay full attention in this regard.
Sardar Hussain Babak, the parliamentary leader of ANP said that the incident was not a good omen for both the assembly and traditions of the province, saying it should not have happened. He said that in response to the harsh words of opposition, the treasury benches should respond in tit-for-tat, but entering into physical brawl is no solution. He asked both provincial ministers Shahram Khan Tarakai and Mohammad Atif Khan to forget the incident and promote the environment of tolerance.
Provincial Minister Mohammad Atif Khan said that the incident was more sorrowful for him than the opposition. He said that such incidents are not the traditions of the province, saying they have always heard the criticism of opposition and continue it in future too.
Leader of the house, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said that the government has started reconciliations into the assembly episode and have held several jirgas to resolve the issue. He said that in capacity of the treasury benches, they have show tolerance despite incitement by some legislators.
He said that he had heard and noted the proposals of the opposition legislators and will discuss it on the concerned forums. He urged the members of the house for avoiding to dilute the pleasant environment and prestige of the house. Earlier, the Speaker, Asad Qaiser also announced to invoke Rules and Procedure 1988, which allows him to ban the entry of turbulent legislators for a few days or whole session of the house. He said that maintaining decorum in the house is joint responsibility of both treasury and opposition benches while the implementation of the rules is his supreme responsibility. He said that he is taking the decision of invoking strict rules in wake of the sorrowful incident.