PESHAWAR, May 5: The NWFP assembly has disallowed the introduction of an opposition bill, seeking the repealing of the governor’s special powers, introduced by the military government, for removing civil servants.

Abdul Akbar Khan of the People’s Party Parliamentarians wanted to table the NWFP Removal from Service (Special Powers) (Repeal) Bill, 2003, but the treasury benches and their allies refused to entertain the bill. In protest, the opposition MPAs, walked out of the house en bloc.

The session, presided over by Speaker Bakhtat Jahan Khan, started at the Assembly Hall here on Khyber Road on Monday.

While laying down the bill, Akbar Khan told the house that the NWFP Removal from Service (Special Powers) Ordinance, 2000, was a draconian law and part of the Legal Framework Order  which deprived of civil servants of their rights. He urged the fellow MPAs that the Ordinance had been promulgated during the martial law and it needed to be repealed.

He said the Civil Servants Act, 1973 was quite enough to check the conduct and efficiency of the government servants. The speedy removal of the employees, under the ordinance, had overlapped the main law, Civil Servants Act, 1973, dealing with them.

The Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Malik Zafar Azam, opposed the opposition’s bill and said the Ordinance too provided its victims the right of defence. Anybody could challenge his immediate removal from the service in the supreme court, he said.

The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MPAs and their PML-N allies opposed the bill. The PML-Q along with the PPP and Awami National Party staged a walkout to register their protest against the MMA’s stance on the bill.

The MPA Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani of PML-Q congratulated the MMA for what he called endorsing the LFO in the house.

Israrullah Gandapur, Mazhar Jameel Alizai, Syed Mureed Khazim, Salma Babar and Nasreen Khattak moved two identical adjournment motions regarding the plight of the students of Saidu Medical College and Gomal Medical College.

They said both colleges had not been recognized by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council for their poor performance, shortage of teaching staff and lack of facilities.

They urged the government to allow the principals of both colleges to hire qualified staff from other institutions as the government procedure involved a lengthy process. Most of the students were about to appear in the final examination and the PMDC team was scheduled to visit the colleges in the next two months.

The Minister for Health, Inyatullah, expressed the same views and said he had ordered the principals to hire staff from the open market. “We are trying to meet the requirements of the students”, he assured. The movers didn’t press their motions. The house referred a privilege motion moved jointly by Maulana Amanullah Haqqani and Muzaffar Said to the concerned committee over the remarks of Peshawar University teacher on an adjournment motion tabled by Maulana Haqqani against the vice-chancellor of the Peshawar University. The movers said this house could take up any issue of public importance and discuss it, but the remarks of a senior teacher against him were condemnable.

The house criticized the teacher’s remarks and termed it breach of the privilege of the members and referred it to the privilege committee to look into the matter.

The house adopted unanimously four resolutions tabled by Qazi Mohammad Asad Khan, Pir Mohammad Khan, Abdul Majid Khan, Shahzada Mohammad Gistasip about the reduction of land-limit from 12 acres to 10 kanals for obtaining agriculture loan, release of prisoners shifted from Afghan prisons to Pakistan, electrification of rural areas in Mansehra and provision of gas connection to residents of Swabi, respectively. Earlier, the movers spoke on the contents of their resolutions and requested the house to adopt them in public interest.

On a call attention notice, Qazi Mohammad Asad Khan drew the attention of the house towards the 100 per cent increase in the property tax in Haripur and termed it unfair. He argued that the property tax should be collected on old rates.

Arshid Khan, on his call attention notice, said over 1,500 students (male and female) were unable to get admission to the middle and high schools in his constituency for lack of vacancies. He proposed that vacant hostels should be turned into classrooms.

The Minister for Education, Fazale Ali, said it was a big problem for the government to accommodate the students who could not get admission in various districts of the province. He hailed the proposal made by the mover and assured him of prompt action.

Iftikhar Ahmed Jhagra of the PPP reminded the chair that it had been agreed on Thursday that finance minister would make his statement on the closed cooperative bank, but he didn’t turn up.

The speaker said that the finance minister would give a statement either tomorrow or the day after.

Earlier, during the question-answer hours, the minister for health briefed the house that they had decided to up-grade the district headquarters hospitals and equip them with the 0required facilities.

He said they had decided not to build any more basic and rural health centres in future.