PESHAWAR, Sept 1: The opposition lawmakers on Monday staged a walkout against the information furnished to the house by the works and services department regarding the construction of link roads in Mardan.

During the question-answer hour, Abdul Akbar Khan of the People’s Party Parliamentarians said it was impossible for the department to spend Rs5 million on one project in a space of 17 days during the closing month of the year — June.

He said the works and services department had sought the administrative approval on June 13 and spent the huge amount on the maintenance of judges’ bungalows in Mardan.

He said all the MPAs hailing from Mardan were ignorant about the names of the judges furnished to the house. The department had spent Rs557,000 on the maintenance of a sessions judge’s residence in Mardan, which was totally wrong, he added.

According to the works and services department, he said, the district council had spent a huge sum on the Khyber army house which had nothing to do with the district government. He said the department had “made the mockery of this august house” by providing false information to it. He along with other opposition parties walked out of the house.

Law and parliamentary affairs minister Malik Zafar Azam described their walkout as unwarranted. He was of the view that the opposition groups should have heard the department before they staged a walkout.

Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan referred the question to the House committee concerned to ascertain the real situation.

The works and services department informed the house that eight tube-wells were closed in Ranizai area of district Swat for the last four years. The government had spent Rs11.99 million on five tube-wells in 1998, but after the dismissal of the Nawaz Sharif government in 1999, the military government stopped funding for these tube-wells, Malik Azam told the house.

He said the department concerned had made an estimate of over Rs20 million for the completion of these projects. This year, he said, these water schemes had not been included in the annual development programme (ADP). Malik Azam told the house that after assuming political power in 1999, the military leadership decided to drop all those schemes where less than 30 per cent had been spent by June 2,000.

The house was informed that a water supply scheme constructed under the Poverty Alleviation Programme in June, 2001, at Naranji in Swabi, was also closed. “If the Village Development Organization is ready to run it, the government will hand it over to it,” Malik Azam said.

MPA Amir Rehman from Swabi said he was not satisfied with the answer given by the department. He said if the VDO was opposed to take the responsibility of the water scheme, what alternative the government would have for this. The VDO was responsible to run this project, the minister observed.

Abdul Akbar Khan also tabled an adjournment motion regarding a threat of resignations made by the union council Nazims. He said the union council Nazims had threatened that they would submit their resignations to the president of Pakistan. He said the Nazims could not submit their resignations to the president. The wave of no-trust motions had changed the situation all over the province as 11 councillors could dislodge a Nazim on a petty issue, he added.