12 March 2004	Friday	20 Muharram 1425

PESHAWAR, March 11: The NWFP assembly on Thursday demanded that the government should abolish contracts of retired military officers and send the serving ones back to barracks.

Through a unanimous resolution, it asked the government to accommodate the civilian officials, who have been waiting for posting.

Speaking on her resolution, PML-N MPA Imtiaz Sultan Bukhari said that experienced and brilliant civilian officials had been waiting for posting for many years. She proposed that military officials should be replaced with the surplus civilian employees.

The house, presided over by Speaker Bakht Jahan Khan, adopted the resolution unanimously. It adopted some other resolutions about the establishment of a circuit bench of the Federal Service Tribunal, completion of electrification projects, resumption of PIA flights for D.I. Khan-Peshawar-Islamabad route and an inquiry into 'ill-mannered' hospitality extended by the Pakistan House staff in Saudi Arabia during Haj.

These resolutions were presented by Khalid Waqar Chamkani, Dr Zakirullah, Salma Babar and Pir Mohammad Khan, respectively. MMA's Akhtar Nawaz Khan, who had demanded upgradation of a school in Haripur, did not press his resolution after an assurance extended by the education minister.

PML-Q's Mushtaq Ghani told the house on a point of order that a doctor at the Khyber teaching hospital had deprived a young boy of his eyesight. He said the boy's left eye, devoid of sight, needed to be operated upon. But, he added, the doctor operated upon his right eye as a result the boy lost the sight. The health minister assured Mr Ghani that the doctor's services would be terminated if he was found guilty in the inquiry.

PPP leader Abdul Akbar Khan tabled an adjournment motion, seeking a debate on the privatization of Wapda which had been divided into eight regional companies by the federal government.

He said the Frontier had paid for the generation of power, its distribution and transmission to the federal government. "We are the owners, but we have not been taken into confidence. Our assets are being sold. This is unjust and wrong. We will not allow the government to do this," Mr Akbar Khan vowed.

He informed the house that the federal government had decided to privatize the Peshawar Electric Supply Company. Such a step, he warned, might trigger uncertainty because the provincial government was involved in a dispute over the net hydroelectricity profit with Wapda. If a multinational company took over Wapda as a result of its privatization, it would lay off thousands of employees, he feared.

The PPP leader warned that it would be the beginning of the end. He urged the provincial government to challenge the matter in a court of law, else his party would do so.

Endorsing the views of Mr Akbar Khan, ANP's Bashir Ahmed Bilour said the electricity had been a provincial subject before the formation of the One-Unit and added that it was only after the break-up of the One-Unit that the centre had taken over it.

He suggested that a memorandum should be presented to the governor, in this regard, who is a representative of the centre in the province. Senior minister Sirajul Haq warned that the privatization of Wapda and Railways would render hundreds of employees jobless and cause uncertainty.