PESHAWAR, Feb 7: The combined opposition in the NWFP Assembly has decided to requisition the provincial assembly's session to discuss what it termed illegal appointments in certain departments besides alleging misappropriation of the development funds and non-execution of different schemes identified in the Tameer-i-Sarhad Programme, 2002.

Leader of the People's Party Parliamentarians in the assembly Abdul Akbar Khan said that they would submit the requisition for the fresh session with the speaker Bakht Jehan Khan on Monday.

Accusing the NWFP government of having diverted developments funds to the Bannu, Buner and Dir districts, depriving MPA from the remaining 21 districts.

Mr Khan, while giving reasons for diversion of funds, said: "Bannu is the home district of (NWFP) Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, Buner is the district of Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan while senior provincial minister Sirajul Haq belongs to the Dir district."

The MMA, he said, had initiated a huge Annual Development Programme costing Rs14 billion which was not manageable.

The budget-makers, he said, had banked entirely on the net hydel profit, estimated around Rs14 billion, which could not be obtained from Islamabad by the provincial government.

The MMA government, he said, would not be able to manage the Rs11 billion shortfall. The government had replaced many a schemes approved by members of the provincial assembly, resulting in the diversion of uplift funds, Mr Khan said.

He dispelled the impression that the NWFP government had evolved a mechanism for the early execution of schemes under the Tameer-i-Sarhad Programme.

He said shelving of development schemes without assigning any reason was unfair, adding that it was doubly so when the government had adequate funds in this regard.

He said even members of the treasury benches were unaware about the fate of schemes identified for their areas under the ADP and TSP.

He blamed the MMA government for introducing the worst kind of parochialism in the province, saying the opposition was keen to discuss the provincial finance commission on which the future development would rest.

He reminded that the NWFP Assembly had been persistently calling for considering poverty as one of the criteria for the distribution of funds.

He accused the NWFP government of having inducted MMA workers into hospitals and educational institutions, depriving the young and talented people who deserved these posts.

The opposition, he said, would discuss the matter in the assembly, forcing the government to clarify its position.

The MMA, he said, had not spared even the Zakat department and had forcibly sent forcibly home all those zakat members, who didn't have any ideological affinity with the Jamaat-i-Islami.

"The JI has set a wrong precedent by dissolving the previous zakat committees. It also needs to be discussed in the assembly," he said.