PESHAWAR: As the fear of horse-trading looms large in the upcoming Senate elections, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly through a resolution on Friday called upon the federal government to take immediate steps to prevent the use of money in the polls.

The resolution jointly tabled by all parliamentary leaders of the opposition parties and ministers representing the treasury was unanimously passed by the house.

“Election for the Senate of Pakistan is scheduled to be held soon and all political parties of the country have agreed that the existing procedure of the Senate election has been bringing a bad name to the august house,” read the resolution.

Seeks centre’s role to ensure transparency of electoral exercise

The resolution further said: “the current procedure of the election in the house is polluting the political atmosphere, so this assembly recommends to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to float a demand to the federal government to make all possible and effective arrangements to ensure transparency in the forthcoming Senate election.”

The resolution was read out by Senior Minister Inayatullah Khan of JI, Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Mohammad Atif Khan, Syed Jaffar Shah of ANP, Mufti Fazl Ghafoor of JUI-F, Mohammad Ali Shah of PPP, Sikandar Sherpao of Qaumi Watan Party and Sardar Orangzaib Nalotha of PML-N.

No lawmaker opposed the resolution when Speaker Asad Qaisar put it to vote.

Prior to tabling the resolution on the floor of the house, the speaker adjourned the session for a break to take all parliamentary leaders into confidence on the draft of the resolution.

After the assembly session began, JI chief Sirajul Haq, who is an MPA as well as a candidate in the Senate elections, demanded that the federal government and Election Commission of Pakistan adopt such procedure that no one sells his/her vote in the Senate polls.

“It (Senate elections) is the test case for the competence of the ECP and federal government,” he told reporters.

The JI chief said the ECP should not stick to the status quo and instead it was its prime responsibility to take innovative steps to discourage horse-trading in the Senate elections.

He said unfortunately, some political parties had four or five members in the provincial assembly but their two to three candidates were contesting the Senate elections.

“Such candidates have support of brief cases filled with money,” he said.

Siraj said if someone opposed the efforts to ensure transparency in the Senate elections, it meant his intentions were not good.

Earlier, lawmakers opposed the conversion of the agricultural land into a housing scheme to be established by the Defence Housing Authority and other private housing schemes in Peshawar.

They urged the government to legislate to avert the establishment of housing schemes on agricultural land.

The debate began when Mehmud Jan of the PTI raised the matter on the floor.

He said most residents of his constituency solely depended on the agriculture, where the DHA was going to establish the housing scheme.

The MPA also said many poor families would be displaced to provide space for the construction of houses for the rich people.

He asked why the barren land of Urmar village was not selected for DHA’s housing scheme instead of agricultural land.

Supporting the mover, PTI MPA Qurban Ali Khan demanded that the government legislate to discourage housing schemes on agricultural land.

“The existing green orchard in my constituency will disappear after the development of the proposed housing scheme,” MPA Arbab Jandad said while participating in the debate.

Speaker Asad Qaisar intervened and asking lawmakers to have a meeting in his chamber on the matter.

Responding to the criticism, Senior Minister Inayatullah Khan said there was a need for land zoning and legislation to protect agricultural land.

The DHA intends to purchase around 10,000 kanals of land on the outskirts of Peshawar city.

Also, the house passed ‘The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority Bill 2015.’

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2015

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