October 31, 2006	Tuesday	Shawwal 7, 1427

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PESHAWAR, Oct 30: The NWFP Assembly has demanded that the federal government make early payment of the funds promised by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for the rehabilitation of flood victims in Charsadda and Mardan districts.

The resolution jointly presented by Abdul Akbar Khan of the People’s Party Parliamentarians, provincial Education Minister Maulana Fazle Ali Haqani, Bashir Ahmed Bilour of the Awami National Party, Makhdoom Mureed Kazim of the PPP (Sherpao), Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani of the Pakistan Muslim League and Dr Mohammad Saleem of the Independent Group was adopted unanimously.

They said during his visit to the affected districts, the prime minister promised Rs1.2 billion for the reconstruction of government buildings and Rs560 million for the construction of houses damaged in the flood.

After the prime minister’s visit, the province sent data of the losses to the federal government but Islamabad had yet to release the amount, they said.

They asked the federal government to make early payment to the NWFP so that it could initiate work on the damaged schools, hospitals, roads and other government buildings.

The house admitted for discussion a call-attention notice presented by Abdul Majid Khan of Swabi against malpractices in offices of patwaris in the province.

He informed the house that patwaris were bound to display mutation fee, ratio of abiana and income tax on agriculture produce but they did not do so.

Lawmakers from both treasury and opposition benches prayed for the tribesmen killed in bombing in Bajaur agency on Monday morning and proposed that the incident should be discussed on Tuesday as they did not have complete details.

Speaking on a point of order, Israrul Haq of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal drew the attention of the house towards the aerial bombing and held the United States responsible for killing of innocent people in the tribal agency.

Pir Mohammad Khan of the MMA condemned the attack, saying: “If we could fight with the erstwhile Soviet Union’s troops in Afghanistan in 1980, we can wage a Jihad against the American forces in Afghanistan.”

Bashir Bilour of the ANP denied that Pukhtuns were extremists or part of Taliban or Al Qaeda.

He said the government had arrested all the Al Qaeda agents from Punjab and Karachi but it had launched operations against Pukhtuns. Abdul Akbar Khan, Shahzada Gustasip Khan, Sikandar Sherpao, Innocent Felix and Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Malik Zafar Azam persuaded the chair to defer the debate for Tuesday.

Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan converted into a motion and admitted for debate a resolution of Mr Bilour against the diversion of the Ghazi Barotha canal water to Islamabad by the Capital Development Authority.

The ANP leader said the CDA would lay two big pipelines and fetch water from Barotha to the capital, which, according to him, was unacceptable to the NWFP.

He said the Punjab government was already tapping water of the Galiat for people of Murree, while people of the Galiat were facing water shortage.

Health Minister Inyatullah Khan told the house that all the people killed by dengue fever in the province had come from Karachi.

Local Government Minister Sardar Idress said all the district and tehsil nazims had been asked to remove filth from their areas.

Responding to an adjournment motion by Abdul Akbar, Ikramullah Shahid and Muzzafar Said, Chief Minister Akram Durrani said the government had taken all possible measures to help the flood victims. He said his government had amended the Relief Act to increase the compensation amount for dead and injured people.

After Mr Durrani’s explanation, the movers did not press their motion, but he provided material to the MPAs to adopt a unanimous resolution asking Islamabad to make payment of the promised amount.