PESHAWAR: The provincial government suffered embarrassment in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday for running the much-trumpeted KP Ehtesab Commission through an acting director general for the last two years against the law department’s opinion.

Despite repeated calls of the opposition members for response about what they called illegal handover of the acting charge of the KPEC director general’s office to director retired brigadier Mohammad Sajjad, law minister Imtiaz Shahid opted not to respond insisting the matter is sub judice.

Majority of the opposition members angrily reacted to the minister’s conduct wondering why the matter was brought to the house if it was pending a decision by the court of law.

The house began debate on the KPEC after Deputy Speaker Prof Meher Taj Roghani, who was in the chair, tabled a relevant question of PPP MPA Fakhar Azam Wazir.

Minister doesn’t reply to opposition query about acting head of Ehtesab Commission, saying matter is sub judice

The mover said the government had failed to appoint a permanent head of the KPEC after the resignation of its then DG retired Lt-Gen Hamid Khan in 2016.

“In its formal opinion, the law department too had opposed the continuation of the acting charge of the DG, but in vain,” he said.

MPA Ziaullah Afridi asked about the legal status of the corruption references filed during the tenure of the acting DG and salary and other benefits drawn by him in light of the law department’s opposition to the running of the commission on adhoc basis. He claimed that the acting DG of the KPEC was a relative of information minister Shah Farman.

Mr Afridi is a former minister of the current PTI government, who was sacked by the government for alleged corruption, which led to his arrest by the KPEC. He also remained in jail for around two years.

Participating in the debate, ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak said the law minister should respond to the functioning of the commission through an acting chief. “If the issue is sub judice, then why it is brought on the floor of the assembly,” he said.

The ANP leader asked under which law the acting KPEC chief was working and said even if there was any such law, the law minister should inform the house about it.

“Everything related to the KPEC is doubtful from its law to appointments to arrests,” he said.

Nighat Orakzai of the PPP, Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli of the QWP, Shiraz Khan of the PML-N and other opposition lawmakers also came down hard on the government for not responding to the KPEC-related question.

A pandemonium was also witnessed for some time in the house after PTI MPA Shaukat Yousafzai stood up for responding to the question.

All opposition members made noise wondering why she was doing so when the law minister was present in the house.

The opposition members later staged a walkout on the matter. They however returned after the government agreed to refer the matter to a special committee formed by the chair afterwards.

The chair said parliamentary leaders of all political parties and question mover Fakhar Azam Wazir would be part of the special committee.

On a point of order, ANP MPA Syed Jaffar Shah complained about the leak of a paper during the recent Provincial Public Service Commission examination for several higher posts of the local government department.

He wondered if the PCS papers were leaked through cellphones and circulated on Whatsapp, then how such things would be handled by other departments.

The house also passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Power of Attorney (Amendment) Bill, 2018, the KP Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2018, the KP Establishment of Information Technology Board (Amendment) Bill, 2018 and the KP Public Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

The chair later adjourned the session until Wednesday.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2018