PESHAWAR, June 29: The NWFP Assembly on Wednesday approved 38 demands for grants in one go without any debate on them. Each demand had five to 10 cut motions submitted by the opposition lawmakers. Abdul Akbar Khan of the People’s Party Parliamentarians, who has always rescued the provincial government, suggested the tabling of all the demands jointly instead of one by one.

Opposition MPA Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao opposed the suggestion but Provincial Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Malik Zafar Azam endorsed it. He said if the MPAs had a consensus, there was no harm in getting the demands for grant jointly passed.

Three demands for grant, which invited criticism from opposition as well as treasury benches, were about the finance, planning and development departments.

The lawmakers criticized negative performance of the departments and asked the chair to seek voting on the expenditures made by them.

Bashir Ahmed Bilour of the Awami National Party objected to the grant of Rs9.167 million to the establishment and general administration department. He criticised what he called the sham austerity of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government.

Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan sought permission of the house for presenting all the demands for grant as one demand and in one go.

A majority of the lawmakers as usual nodded yes and the speaker announced the approval of all the demands for grant.

Lauding role of the opposition groups, Mr Azam, who spoke on behalf of the finance minister, said the opposition had showed commendable gesture by approving the annual and supplementary budgets.

He said opposition had always extended cooperation to the provincial government on issues of collective interests.

He said it was because of the unity that the house was distinguished from other provincial assemblies. He said: “We will sort out the difference between the government and opposition to jointly run affairs of the province.”

Mr Sherpao said the MMA government in its previous budgets had tried to ‘eliminate’ the opposition instead of eliminating the differences between the government and opposition.

Taking notice of absence of the secretaries of government departments from the gallery, the speaker asked them to ensure their presence in the session.

He warned of taking action against those who would not ensure their presence in the session in future.

On a point of order, Maulana Mujahid-al-Hussaini of the MMA condemned an incident of ‘burning’ of Holy Quran and then destroying a temple by agitators in Nowshera today.

The chair adjourned the session till Thursday.