PESHAWAR - The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Monday once again witnessed 'Go Nawaz Go' and 'Go Imran Go' slogans when its proceedings began after 10-day break. The joint opposition announced boycott of the House, alleging they have no freedom to speak like the treasury benches.
The KPK Assembly met with Speaker Asad Qaiser in the chair with a delay of one and a half hour. Soon after the recitation from Holy Quran and start of the proceedings, Leader of Opposition Maulana Lutfur Rehman took the floor and condemned the unpleasant incident occurred in the House some 10-day back. He termed the incident against the democratic spirit and traditions of the House.
Maulana Lutfur Rehman said the attitude adopted on that day was totally against the rich traditions of the House. He said that it was the tradition of the House that whenever the chief minister and Leader of the Opposition took the floor, the House heard them with patience. However, he said the attitude adopted in KP Assembly on that day was against the democratic spirit and traditions of the House.
He alleged that the government is restricting the opposition legislators and hurdles are being created for them. He said that for first time in the history of the provincial assembly treasury benches had staged walkout from the House. He said that they are talking about the restoration of the sanctity of the House while the treasury benches are against it. He especially mentioned the actions of treasury members against MPA Nighat Orakzai.
He said that joint opposition has decided to boycott of today's proceedings to protest that incident. Speaker Asad Qaiser requested the opposition not to boycott the proceedings of the House. However, the opposition legislators staged walkout amid the slogans of both opposition and treasury benches.
The opposition parties' members chanted slogans against PTI Chairman Imran Khan whereas the government raised those against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. On this occasion, the speaker directed Finance Minister Muzaffar Saeed and Minister for Information Mushtaq Ghani to convince the opposition but they refused to come back and left the assembly premises.
For pacifying the opposition legislators, Senior Minister for Local Governments Inayatullah Khan took the floor and said that they wanted to normalise situation in the House. However, he said it should be done with joint efforts of both government and opposition.
He said that whatever happened in the House on that particular day was improper either it was committed by the members from treasury or opposition benches. However, he said that they want running of the proceedings of the house in a pleasant environment.
Inayatullah said that till the restoration of the confidence of the people in the institutions, democracy could not be strengthened. Therefore, he urged both treasury and opposition benches to feel their responsibility and continue democratic process.
He said that opposition has submitted questions in larger public interest and they wanted running of the House with the same spirit. On this occasion, the Speaker constituted a four-member committee comprising senior ministers Inayatullah Khan, Shahram Khan Tarakai, Minister for Finance, Muzaffar Said, Minister for Information, Mushtaq Ghani and Minister for Law, Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi for holding negotiations with opposition to end their boycott and bring them back to the House.
After boycott, the speaker announced lapse of the questions as their movers were absent from the house while the adjournment, and call attention notices were deferred.
The House later in the absence of opposition passed three bills, including The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2014, The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Registration (Amendment) Bill, 2014 and The Provincial Motor Vehicles (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) (Amendment) Bill, 2014. The Speaker adjourned the proceedings till Tuesday (Today) afternoon.