PESHAWAR: The appointment of parliamentary secretaries to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has become a financial burden on the exchequer.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had appointed 15 parliamentary secretaries to assist the government in the House in the absence of the ministers, advisers and special assistants concerned but they haven’t been of any use to perform their tasks.

Officials in the assembly secretariat said appointment of parliamentary secretaries was a total ‘wastage of resources’ and they had no role in defending the government’s position in the House.

“These parliamentary secretaries don’t know what is happening in their respective departments because the ministers concerned don’t take them on board regarding official matters,” said one official.

Like ministers and advisers, parliamentary secretaries are either found missing or have no information to reply to opposition’s questions when they are required to do so in the House. As a result speaker has to defer the business.

Official says such appointees know nothing about relevant departments

“The entire situation is before the media and needs no further explanation,” said a member of the cabinet when asked about the utility of the parliamentary secretaries.

The existing strength of the cabinet comprising Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Jamaat-i-Islami and Qaumi Watan Party is 14 ministers, four advisers and eight special assistants to the chief minister.

An adviser and a special assistant to the chief minister were recently dismissed for violating the party’s discipline in local government elections.

The government through a notification had entitled each parliamentary secretary to have an official car with 400 litres fuel per month, 50 per cent additional basic salary of an MPA (Rs18,000 a month), provision of offices and personal staff of the minister with whom he or she is attached.

Two parliamentary secretaries belong to JI and 12 including five women to PTI. Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan which recently merged with the PTI had also one parliamentary secretary.

Apart from the issues related to parliamentary secretaries, the dismal performance of the treasury benches in the assembly is evident from the fact that on several occasions the assembly sittings had to be adjourned due to lack of quorum.

The cabinet members, including chief minister, don’t take Speaker Asad Qaisar’s rulings seriously and that they always remain absent from the House. Like cabinet members, the bureaucracy too don’t take interest in the business. The administrative secretaries don’t come to the official galleries to assist the treasury.

An official told Dawn that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had attended only one sitting since the assembly passed annual budget in June last.

He said the assembly’s secretariat had sent several reminders to the concerned departments to depute senior officers for the assembly proceedings, but they did not take it serious.

“The secretariat had issued several letters to chief secretaries and administrative secretaries to depute senior officers to the rank of additional secretaries for covering the House’s proceedings, but they do not pay attention to the speaker’s rulings and only directors or section officers are deputed,” the official said.

A parliamentary secretary complained that ministers and administrative secretaries had sidelined them and discouraged them from taking interest in the official matters.

“Parliamentary secretaries were appointed to enjoy official perks and keep their mouth shut,” he said, adding that they (parliamentary secretaries) were also responsible for the situation because they could not assert their positions.

When approached, special assistant to the chief minister on information Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani did not comment on the utility and performance of the parliamentary secretaries. He, however, insisted the performance of treasury benches was satisfactory.

The special assistant said the lack of quorum occurred on Friday only as majority of MPAs had gone to their respective constituencies on the day.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2015