PESHAWAR, Jan 10: All the 124 lawmakers of the NWFP Assembly have donated their one month's (January) salary to the tsunami-hit South Asians and observed a two-minute silence for the dead.
The session, presided over by Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan, began at the assembly building on Monday. Soon after the announcement of the panel of chairmen, Opposition Leader Shahzada Gustasap Khan, rising on a point order, drew the attention of the chair to the misery of the tsunami-hit people of South Asia and islands along the Pacific rim.
He said the world community always extended assistance to Pakistan whenever it was hit by a natural disaster and at present it was everybody's duty to help. Bashir Ahmed Bilour of the Awami National Party asked the chair to offer Fateha for the Muslims killed by the quake and tsunami waves and observe a two-minute silence for the non-Muslims washed away by the killer tides.
Minister for Industries and Mineral Development Malik Zafar Azam urged the federal government to send relief teams to help the authorities in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Sari Lanka and other affected islands.
Mustahq Ahmed Ghani of the PML-Q, Anwar Kamal Khan of PML-N and Abdul Akbar Khan of the People's Party Parliamentarians also expressed sympathies with the governments and people of the tsunami-hit countries.
They asked the NWFP government to take concrete measures for the early rehabilitation of the people affected by the torrential rains in Abbottabad, D. I. Khan, Lakki Marwat, Nowshera and other parts of the province.
Clarifying government's position, Minister for Local Government Sardar Mohammad Idress said he personally visited some of areas and assured the affected people on behalf of the chief minister that alternate residential facilities would be provided to them.
Earlier, Abdul Akbar Khan, parliamentary leader of the PPP, drew the attention of the chair towards what he called 'an unconstitutional move on the part of the NWFP governor', asking the House to reconsider a bill adopted by the NWFP Assembly on Aug 25, 2004.
According to Article 116, Mr Khan said, if the governor failed to sign a bill within a period of 30 days, it would be become a law. He asked the chair to delete the bill from the agenda as it had become a law. He said the objection raised by the governor had no constitutional base and should not be entertained.
Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Alhaaj Ayaz Khan endorsed the stand of Abdul Akbar Khan and urged the chair to remove the bill from the proceeding list. The Speaker after seeking opinion of the House deleted the bill from the assembly agenda.
The House adopted an adjournment motion tabled by Pir Mohammed Khan regarding recruitments in the Adult Literacy Programme being run by the Elementary Education Foundation across the province.
He expressed apprehensions that the appointments could be made on favouritism. The government was going to spend Rs1 billion on the programme and would recruit 20,000 employees.
Minister for Education Maulana Fazal Ali said the government had yet not made any recruitments and the apprehension were baseless. But, most of the lawmakers endorsed the point raised by the mover and said that the admittance of the motion would work as a safety valve in future.
Mr Bilour tabled an adjournment motion against the remarks made by a Lahore High Court's judge (Multan Bench) against the Pukhtuns. The judge had dubbed all the Pukhtuns as smugglers while he was hearing a smuggling case, wherein a Pukhtun was involved. Abdul Akbar Khan of the PPP demanded an early impeachment of the judge by the Supreme Court.
The speaker kept pending the motion for 10 days till the confirmation of remarks by the judge. Four separate bills - NWFP Prosecution Service (Constitution, Functions and Powers) Ordinance 2004; the NWFP Urban Im-moveable Property Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2004; the NWFP Removal from Service (Special Powers) (Amendment) Bill, 2004; and the NWFP validation Of Standing Order Bill, 2004 - were laid before the House by the respective ministers for discussion. Later, the speaker adjourned the House till Tuesday.
