August 04, 2007	Saturday	Rajab 19, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Aug 3: The opposition members on Friday staged a token walkout from the National Assembly (NA) to protest over the stoppage of development funds to them for the past two years terming it a discriminatory act to victimise the opponents.

Interestingly, the members of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) who had also been criticising the government for stopping their development funds, did not join the members of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in the walkout.

The issue was raised by Qari Gul Rehman of the MMA who described the written replies given by Federal Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Abdul Razzaq Thahim as wrong.

Replying to a question of Qari Rehman, the minister told the National Assembly that the government had spent over Rs4.4 billion on a total of 8,680 development schemes and projects completed in the last two years under the Khushhal Pakistan Programme (KPP).

Giving break-up, the minister said that 4,623 schemes were completed in 2004-05 with a cost of Rs2.322 billion and 4,057 projects were completed in 2005-06 at a cost of Rs2.08 billion.

Replying to another question of MMA member Asiya Nasir, the minister told the house that each member of the lower house had been allocated Rs10 million in the year 2003-04 while they were given Rs5 million funds in the remaining four years under the KPP.

However, Qari Rehman, Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali and Asiya Nasir challenged the government’s claim and alleged that the opposition members had not been given funds for the past two years despite the clear announcement of the regime.

They said the government had only released funds to the treasury members who were using them in their election campaign. The MMA members then staged a token walkout to protest the ‘discriminatory’ attitude of the government.

Meanwhile, speaking at a news conference at the Parliament House cafeteria, MMA leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said that he would soon set up a protest camp outside the Supreme Court to press for his demand to supply gas and electricity in his constituency.

The MMA leader asked the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of the non-implementation of the promises made by the ministers regarding supply of gas and electricity to the people of his constituency in Balochistan.

MMA member from Quetta Maulana Noor Mohammad was also present in the press conference. Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had promised him during the budget session to release funds for the required projects but no funds had so far released.

Hafiz Hussain was also critical of the decision of MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed to resign from the National Assembly.