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| November 1, 2005 | Tuesday | Ramzan 27, 1426 |
Amended Hasba bill tabled amid rumpus
PESHAWAR, Oct 31: Amid a rumpus created by a hitherto docile opposition, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) government laid a slightly amended version of the Hasba bill in the NWFP Assembly on Monday.
When Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Malik Zafar Azam rose to table the new version of the bill, which had earlier been adopted by the assembly, leaders of all opposition groups vociferously opposed it.
Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan, however, allowed the minister to table the bill.
Lawmakers of the MMA endorsed what appeared to be a ‘toothless law’ reframed on the basis of the Supreme Court’s verdict on its controversial portions.
Abdul Akbar Khan of People’s Party Parliamentarians, who wanted to speak on a point of order, was not allowed by the chair to make any statement. He deplored the attitude of the speaker and said that as custodian of the house he should be impartial.
Mr Khan was of the view that the MMA government had already got the bill adopted in a previous session. “Why then should the government be in such a hurry to table a similar bill in the house?” he asked.
He said the Supreme Court of Pakistan had not scrapped the entire bill. Instead it had ordered the provincial government to delete its controversial clauses.
Whether the provincial government would withdraw the earlier Hasba bill, which was now a law, or would it get a similar law passed by the house, he asked. He said he was surprised at the wisdom of the MMA government which, according to him, was contradicting its own action.
Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani of the Pakistan Muslim League, Bashir Ahmed Bilour of the Awami National Party, Anwar Kamal Marwat of the PML-N and Makhdoom Mureed Kazim of the PPP-S supported Mr Khan.
They vehemently opposed the bill and termed it an untimely move to divert the attention of the people from the ineptness of the provincial government in handling the devastating effects of the earthquake which killed thousands of people and flattened hundreds of towns and villages in five districts of the province.
In the garb of this law, they alleged, the provincial government was trying to establish its control over police stations and set up a parallel judicial system.
Lawmakers from the treasury and opposition benches threw copies of the bill at each other. The law minister himself hurled a copy of the bill towards Nighat Orakzai, an outspoken opposition MPA.
Earlier, the opposition lawmakers who have been demanding that the government should declare the quake-battered districts as calamity-hit areas walked out of the house in protest.
Why was the government reluctant to issue this notification, they asked.
Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai assured the house that the government would issue a notification in a couple of days.
Initiating a debate on the earthquake and its aftermath, Wajihuzzaman from Mansehra lauded the sympathy and support demonstrated by the people of Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and the NWFP for the sufferings of quake victims. He said people from Karachi to Khyber reached Mansehra, Balakot, Battagaram and Kohistan, but officials of the provincial government were not seen anywhere.
Pir Mohammad Khan, an MMA dissident, said that while provincial minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai had claimed that tents had been provided to all the affected people, an army spokesman said that over 100,000 people would die of cold if tents and blankets were not provided to them.
“Who was right, the army spokesman or the provincial minister?” he asked.
Mushtaq Ghani and Shahzada Gistasip demanded that the government should shift its proposed tent village from the University of Hazara to another suitable place. They urged the government to start classes at the university, instead of turning it into a refugee camp.
They asked the government to give admissions to affected students of the Azad Kashmir University in the educational institutions of the NWFP.
Bashir Ahmed Bilour said that during his visit to quake-hit areas, he didn’t witness a single government relief camp in Basham, Madakhelabad and the adjoining villages of Battagaram and Mansehra. He said the people marooned in remote villages had not been approached by the government, adding that only NGOs were engaged in relief work.
Maulana Mujahid Al-Hussaini asked the chair to form a joint parliamentary committee comprising MPAs of both sides to monitor and supervise the relief operation being conducted by the army.
Dildar Hussain, an MPA from the badly-affected Kohistan area, told the house that neither the army nor government officials had contacted the affected people of his constituency.
The speaker adjourned the house till Tuesday morning.
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