Opposition in KP Assembly flays PTI resolution against CEC

PESHAWAR (APP): The opposition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly on Monday strongly condemned adoption of a resolution moved and passed by the treasury benches against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and said that such a resolution is against the democratic norms.
Nighat Orakzai of PPP pointed out the quorum, when the resolution was moved by the Finance Minister but Panel of the Chairman Idrees Khattak continued the proceedings while ignoring her. She resorted to stage protest in front of the speaker dice and tore apart the agenda and threw to the chair dice. However the minister for Finance and MPA Ziaullah Bangash convinced her and she ended the boycott.
Meanwhile, parliamentary leader of Awami National Party (ANP) Sardar Hussain Babak said that passing the resolution in haste was not in accordance with the democratic norms. He condemned the attitude of treasury benches and said that Tehreek-e-Insaf has buried political ethics. Babak said the price hike, economic crisis and other issues had made life miserable for everyone but the treasury benches were reluctant to talk about these issues including ban on trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
He alleged that PTI Ministers were regularly paying ransom to Taliban whenever they demanded, adding that the PTI provincial government under its leader “Taliban Khan ” had restored Tehreek Nifaz Sharia Muhammadi while also promoting Talibanisation in the province. Maulana Lutf ur Rehman of JUIF said that PTI was silent when all the political parties were demanding fair and transparent elections and now blaming others. He said that PTI wanted a politically destabilized Pakistan.
Parliamentary leader of PMLN Sardar Muhammad Yousaf condemned passing of the resolution and said that the resolutions should have been passed through a democratic norm. He said that only three lawmakers of PTI have signed this regulation. He said that 13 political parties were standing united against PTI because they considered that PTI was incapable of running the affairs of the state.
Naeema Kishwar of JUIF said that the powers of CEC was similar to the Chief Justice of Pakistan and no assembly has the right to pass a resolution against CEC, adding if the election commissioner of Pakistan takes action against the mover of the resolution he/she would be disqualified for the assembly.
Earlier, the House passed a resolution demanding resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner and all members of the commission to pave the way for holding free and fair elections in the country. The resolution presented by Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said that resignation of the CEC was essential so that all political parties unanimously constitute an impartial election commission for holding free and fair elections.
The resolution also condemned the dissolution of PTI government in the federation as part of an international conspiracy and said that the move caused political uncertainty and adversely affected the economy of the country. The resolution hoped that all the political parties would act responsibly in the wake of the prevailing situation in the country and concluded that the immediate transparent general elections were the only way to pull the country out of the present crisis.
KP Assembly passes three bills including commerce, trade statistics bill: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday passed three bills and tabled one including Commerce and Trade Statistic Bill, 2022 to provide collection of statistics relating to commercial and trade activities for promotion of trade in the province.
The bill was moved by Minister for Finance Taimur Salim Jhagra with panel of the chairman Idrees Khattak. The minister said that the collection and use of statistics of trade and commerce are of immense importance in strategizing the commercial activities. He said that the statistics on commercial and trade activities are very helpful and can be used in planning effective trade, commerce and investment policy for achieving boost in economic activities.
Taimur Jhagra said that at present there is no regulatory regime for the collection of trade and commerce statistics, resultantly no accurate and authenticated data is available with the government regarding the quantity of different items produced, sold, exported and imported or about the quantifiable numbers of trade activity or investment that can be used for planning of effective trade and commerce policies. The House also passed the KP Medical Officers of Health Department (Regularization of Services) Bill, 2022, the KP Lissaail-e-Wal Mahroom Foundation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and tabled the KP Finance (Amendment) Bill 2022 in the House.
The bills were moved by Minister for Finance and Health, Taimur Salim Jhagra and Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Fazle Shakoor respectively. The House also accepted the adjournment motion of Naeema Kishwar of JUIF for holding debate regarding the uncertainty and casualties due to heavy downpour in prevailing monsoon season.
Minister for labour, Shaukat Yousafzai said that KP government is taking measures to facilitate flood and rains affectees which claimed 92 persons and about 100 were injured. He said that the KP government feels the grief of flood affectees and sent relief items to Balochistan. Later, the proceedings of the assembly were adjourned till 14:00 hours of Tuesday (August 2) due to lack of quorum pointed out by Ziaullah Bangash of PTI.