PESHAWAR: Criticising the delay in passage of conflict of interest bill in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan said on Tuesday that any PTI legislator who opposes the bill has no place in his party.
In a series of tweets, Khan said that the COI bill is part of PTI's commitment to the nation and he will take strict action against the party's KP legislators who are opposing or trying to delay the passage of bill in the provincial assembly.
The chief of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's ruling party said that PTI would opt to sit in the opposition rather than renege on the core commitments made to the nation.
"All PTI MPAs should know this," read the tweet.
Khan also welcomed the introduction of 'Whistleblower Protection & Vigilance Commission Bill' in KP Assembly calling it another milestone in 'strengthening accountability' in the province.
Criticising the federal government over alleged irregularities in the Nandipur power project, the PTI chief claimed that the planned probe will be a cover up as Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif himself is directly involved in the whole mess like the Model Town tragedy.
Khan vowed that his party will not allow a possible 'cover up of the scam'.
Related PM orders audit of Nandipur scam
According to a report published in Dawn newspaper on Monday, the passage of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Prevention of Conflict of Interest Bill, 2015, which aims at preventing and minimising the possibility of conflict between private interests and public duties of public officeholders, in the provincial assembly was delayed further after the treasury and opposition benches insisted the proposed law in the current shape would harm their interests.
The bill says no public officeholder will make a decision or participate in making a decision related to the exercise of an official power, duty or function if the public officeholder knows or reasonably should know that in the making of the decision, he or she will be in a conflict of interest.
The bill says that ‘public officeholders’ mean the governor, the chief minister, speaker of the provincial assembly, deputy speaker, provincial ministers, advisors and special assistants to the chief minister, parliamentary secretaries, MPAs, advocate general, including additional advocate general, deputy advocate general, political secretary, consultant to the chief minister and one who holds or has held a post or office with the rank of status of a provincial minister, nazim and naib nazim of a local council and members of the subordinate judiciary.
