18 April 2004	Sunday	27 Safar 1425

PESHAWAR, April 17: Provincial lawmakers who are residing at the MPAs hostel opposed a move by the assembly secretariat to increase accommodation charges , despite the fact that the perks and privileges enjoyed by the parliamentarians have been raised many times over the years as compared to the hostel rent fixed in 1974.

Officials said that presently each member of the assembly, who occupied a two-room flat in the hostel, was paying Rs900 per month in lieu of getting A-grade facilities including free room service.

The sources said that the assembly secretariat had proposed to the successive speakers and deputy speakers to enhance the MPAs hostel charges, but the MPAs opposed the move every time.

"The assembly secretariat is running into losses as the electricity bill is about Rs300,000 per month in summer, while it gets nothing in the shape of rent charged from the boarding MPAs," an official at the MPAs hostel said.

The current charges of the hostel were fixed 30 years back when a lawmaker received only Rs5,000 per month. At present, an MPA was getting Rs18,000 in perks and privileges, but they opposed the raise in the hostel charges and thus burdening the secretariat, the official said.

"The secretariat had suggested Rs7,500 raise per month in the hostel charges," he added.

However, Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan, when approached, said that the matter had not been brought into his knowledge.

An official said that the Punjab Assembly Secretariat was deducting Rs900 per day as hostel charges from the members.

Former deputy speaker of the NWFP Assembly, Haji Mohammad Adeel, opposed raise in hostel charges, saying that there was no comparison between the two assemblies as Punjab had six MPAs hostels whereas the NWFP had one.

But, he said, the MPAs in Punjab only used the facility when the house was in session, so they paid Rs900 per day. In the NWFP, the facility was permanently allotted to the members to use it as office-cum-residence.