PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday unanimously passed a private member’s bill to regularise the services of all teaching assistants as lecturers in their respective colleges of the province.

The teaching assistants were appointed to various colleges of the province in 2014 and 2015.

PTI member Mehmood Jan moved the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Regularisation of Teaching Assistants as Lecturers Bill, 2017.

Over 770 to become lecturers, their seniority to be linked with notification

Other movers of the bill were Meraj Hamayun and Sardar Mohammad Idrees.

Though the opposition legislators have presented some amendments to the bill, Sardar Hussain Babak of the Awami National Party took the floor on a point of order and announced the withdrawal of the proposed amendments.

The passage of the bill paved way for the regularisation of around 772 teaching assistants as lecturers. However, their seniority will be linked with the issuance of notification.

Some members demanded the regularisation of lecturers from the date of their appointment.

Adviser to the CM on higher education Mushtaq Ghani pacified them saying there will not any issue of the seniority of teaching assistants.

In their speeches after the passage of the bill, lawmakers from both the treasury and opposition benches termed the bill a ‘triumph’ of the KP Assembly and said the legislation would improve the overall performance of the education sector.

Others bills, including the KP Appointment of Employees of Establishment of M&E System in KP Bill, 2017, KP Capacity Building, Planning and Development Department Employees (Regularisation of Services) Bill, 2017, and KP Employees of Energy and Power Department (Regularisation of Services) Bill, 2017, were also introduced in the house.

Meanwhile, JUI-F MPA from district Battagram clashed with MPAs from Kohistan district over the inclusion of Chor and Maleja valleys in the new district of Palas.

Speaking on a calling attention notice, JUI-F MPA from Alai tehsil of Battagram district Shah Hussain Khan Alai said the areas of Chor and Maleja valleys had been part of Alai tehsil since 1947 and its possession was also with the people of the area concerned.

He said the areas were also the administratively part of Alai tehsil of Battagram district, which had created severe unrest, anger and anxiety among local residents.

The lawmaker requested the provincial government to withdraw the decision with immediate effect to remove the sense of anger, anxiety and unrest from the people of the area.

In response to the call attention notice of the JUI-F legislator, Zar Gul of PTI rejected the contentions of the opposition member and said the area was part of the district even in the notification announced in 1976, 1993 and 2014.

He said the inclusion of the areas in the upgradation was not a new step.

Abdul Sattar Khan of the PML-N also defended the inclusion of the areas in Palas district and said the valleys had been part of Kohistan since 1976 and remained part and parcel of the district in 1993 and 2014.

He said administratively, the area was integral part of district Kohistan even in 1943 and 1890.

In response to the contentions of the legislators, law and parliamentary affairs minister Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi assured the house that the matter would be taken up with the relevant minister.

Later, Speaker Asad Qaisar adjourned the proceedings until 3pm on Monday.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2017