PESHAWAR: Thought to be the first chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to hold the largest number of portfolios, Mahmood Khan is no different from his predecessors when it comes to attending the assembly session on its important days.

Mr Mahmood despite retaining 21 portfolios remained absent from the budget session of the provincial assembly, which began debate on cut motions on Monday.

The agenda, which carries the details of demands for grants vis-à-vis cut motions, shows that the chief minister has to respond to cut motions for 21 of the 34 departments.

According to parliamentary traditions, the minister in charge has to respond to the house on behalf of the chief minister.

Mr Mahmood was present in the house when the annual budget was presented on Oct 15.

Currently, he retains key and ordinary departments, including administration, planning and development, excise and taxation, home and tribal affairs, inter provincial coordination, information and housing.

Mahmood holds 21 portfolios

His predecessor, Pervez Khattak, also held important portfolios but he appointed a brigade of advisers, special assistants and parliamentary secretaries to run the departments. The current provincial cabinet comprises 11 ministers, two advisers and two special assistants.

An official said CM Mahmood was probably the first chief executive, who had kept such a large number of portfolios in the history of the province.

During discussion on demands for grant, the opposition took the planning and development and administration departments to the task for poor performance. It criticised the government for what they described poorly planned multibillion rupees Bus Rapid Transit project. The Asian Development Bank is financing the project, which was launched in Oct 2017.

The house approved six demands for grants worth Rs9.23 billion for the financial year 2018-19.

Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani chaired the proceedings and administered the oath to MPA-elect Faisal Ameen Gandapur from Dera Ismail Khan, who had won the recent by-election, before allowing debate on the cut motions.

The opposition members withdrew five cut motions after lengthy discussion, while the demand for grant for planning, development and bureau of statistics was put to vote. the demand for grant was defeated.

Speaking on a cut motion, opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani said the government seemed clueless on the planning side during its five years tenure. He said projects were executed without proper planning causing huge financial loss to the exchequer.

Mr Durrani said before launching the BRT project, the local government department had spent billions of rupees on the development of green belts and footpaths along the main road.

He said the entire infrastructure was dug out last year, while green trees were cut down for the bus project.

The opposition leader asked the government to show the details of expenditure of the development of green belts and construction of footpaths in the city.

He said the destruction of infrastructure along the main road indicated a lack of planning on part of the government, especially planning and development department.

“The government poured money down the drain, which reflects poor planning and lack of coordination among the departments concerned,” said Durrani, a former chief minister.

Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MPA Mian Nisar Gul pointed out a shortage of qualified planners in the department and asked the government to fix a timeframe for the completion of development projects.

MPA Inayatullah Khan complained about inequitable distribution of development funds and asked the government to do away with the ‘tradition’.

He said feasibility studies were prepared without planning. The lawmaker proposed that the government take steps for increasing revenue.

Finance minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra turned down the opposition’s criticism of BRT project and said he won’t set deadline for the completion of work. He said the total cost of the project was Rs69 billion.

The minister claimed that the BRT would generate jobs and employment besides providing quality transport service to people.

He said civil work would be completed by the end of Dec, while the soft opening of the project was expected in March 2019.

The minister said the government’s top priority was the completion of its flagship projects.

He acknowledged lack of planning in the government sector and blamed previous governments for ignoring the vital sector. The minister blamed the previous federal government for delay in the BRT’s successful execution. He said new local government system was prepared to make it more transparent.

Speaker Mushtaq Ghani issued orders for the attachment of the Fata House with Pakhtunkhwa House in Islamabad to resolve the problem of accommodation for MPAs.

He said MPAs faced accommodation problem during their stay in federal capital and therefore, attachment of Fata House could resolve the issue.

The speaker asked the administration department to take the initiative in this regard. The lawmakers complained that rooms in Pakhtunkhwa House were always found to be occupied and therefore, they had to stay in hotels.

They said the rest house was established to facilitate lawmakers and not officials and unauthorised guests.

The federal government had handed over the ownership of Fata House to the KP government after the merger of tribal region with the province. The tourism department later moved a summary to the chief minister to seeking the control of the building for revenue generation.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2018

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