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| July 6, 2005 | Wednesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 28, 1426 |
Assembly approves bill to regularize service of contract employees
PESHAWAR, July 5: The provincial assembly through a unanimously approved bill has regularized the services of all employees recruited on contract basis after July 1, 2001. However, these employees will not be entitled to pension and gratuity. The NWFP Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2005, was tabled in the house on April 20 for consideration and for amending the section 19 of the NWFP Civil Servants Act, 1973.
Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Malik Zafar Azam tabled a motion, on behalf of the NWFP chief minister. The house unanimously adopted the amendment bill.
Earlier during the debate, People’s Party Parliamentarians MPA Abdul Akbar Khan said it had been a longstanding demand of the opposition to provide legal cover to contract employees.
He demanded that all contract-holders should be regularized. He said fixing of a date was unfair and unjust, instead services of all contract employees should be regularized.
All the previous governments, he said, had recruited employees with an intention to control the growing unemployment in the province. He said those recruited before July 2001 should also be regularized under the same pattern.
Mr Khan presented a resolution against the amendments introduced into the NWFP Local Government Ordinance, 2005, saying the amendments would bulldoze the spirit of the local government system.
The mover said that 28 years ago a military dictator, who had abrogated the 1973 Constitution and dismissed the government of Pakistan People’s Party on July 5, 1977, hanged the democratically elected prime minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
He said that on the same day (July 5) the NWFP government was going to dissect upon the Constitution in the same disgusting manners. By introducing 89 amendments into the Ordinance the government had tailored a complete new ordinance, he added.
Reading out his resolution against the amendments under Rule 111, he said: “This assembly disapproved the Ordinance No II 2005, (Local Government Amendment-2005) promulgated by the NWFP governor on July 16, under Article 128 of the Constitution.” He said the NWFP government was following into the footstep of the dictator.
He said the local government system was neither a federal subject nor it was placed on the concurrent list, instead it was purely a provincial subject, but lawmakers could not speak on it.
The House could do away with the amendment ordinance-2005, because ordinance 2001 was protected under the VI-Schedule. He said: “After amendments, this ordinance will become a part of the VI-Scheduler, which again could not be amended without the desire of the president.”
Mr Khan said on the one hand the NWFP governor had summoned the assembly session on June 19, while on the other hand he signed the ordinance on June 16 to facilitate the government.
He said lawmakers were ignorant about the issuance of the ordinance till June 30.
The PPP legislators said that his party believed in provincial autonomy and devolution of power. But it was opposed to the extraordinary powers vested in the district nazim, he added.
Mr Khan said a district nazim needed a simple majority of the district council to get himself elected, but a two-third majority would be required to remove him from his office. He said two union council nazims, who proposed and seconded a no-trust motion against the district nazim, would stand dismissed if the motion was defeated by the district nazim.
He said in such a situation none of the union council nazims would dare to second and propose a no-confidence motion against a district nazim.
The minister for local government and rural development, however, tabled the NWFP Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2005, for the consideration in the House.
Minister for Irrigation Hafiz Akhtar Ali introduced the NWFP Irrigation and Drainage Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2005, for consideration of the members.
The house also referred a privilege motion moved by Ms Rukhsana of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal against an executive engineer of the Public Health Engineering Department in the House.
Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan adjourned the session till Wednesday.
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