At last Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Friday passed the much awaited Conflict of Interest (CoI) Bill, 2016 to ban private business for public office holders of the province. The original draft of the Bill presented in the provincial assembly on November 19, 2014 was covering all public office holders.
However, the Bill adopted by the provincial assembly after hectic efforts covers Governor, Chief Minister, Provincial Cabinet, Speaker, Deputy Speaker of the provincial assembly, provincial ministers, advisors and special assistant to chief minister, the Advocate-General, Additional Advocate General, Assistant Advocate General, a political secretary, a consultant to the chief minister, and one who holds or has held a post of office with the rank or status of a provincial minister, Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary, administrative secretaries and special secretaries.
Under the Act, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will establish an independent commission to be known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Prevention of Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commission. The commission will comprise of a chairman to be appointed by the provincial government on the recommendation of the Selection Committee, who will be eligible to become a judge of the high court and two members including one retired civil servant in BPS-20 or above and the other member of the commission will be a person having expertise in financial management.
The selection committee to be constituted by the provincial government will be comprising of two members, one from the treasury benches and one from opposition to select and recommend a panel of three persons, each for the post of chairman and member of the commission and member from treasury benches will be designated as chairman of the selection committee, who will have a casting vote.
The chairman and members of the commission will engage exclusively in the duties and functions of the commission and will not hold any other office or profit or engage in any other employment for reward. The commission will meet at least once in a month but the chairman, may, at any time, call a special meeting of the commission. The commission will take decisions through simple majority.
In addition to carrying out other duties and functions under this Act, the commission will provide confidential advice to the chief minister, with respect to the application of this Act to individual public office holders; provide confidential advice to individual public office holders with respect to their obligations and issue opinions regarding the requirements of this Act and means to be adopted for compliance with its provisions.
Any citizen of Pakistan who has reasonable grounds to believe that a public office holder has contravened the provision of this Act may, in writing, request the commission showing his complete address with CNIC company to examine the matter: provided that anonymous applications will not be entertained by the commission.
After the passage of the Bill, the Chief Minister Pervez Khattak congratulated the house, saying the provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had a history of passing such unique law. He said that initially, the Bill covers, the public office holders including Governor, Chief Minister, provincial ministers, advisors, special assistants, Speaker, Deputy Speaker KP Assembly, Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary and all administrative secretaries and special secretaries to the provincial government. He said that in future more recommendations of the house will also be included in it.