PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan attended the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s session on Wednesday after a long interval and promised presence in more and more sittings.

Mr Mahmood, who holds around 20 portfolios, had absented himself from the last three assembly sessions angering the opposition members, who wanted answers to their queries regarding his departments.

Also, the ministers, advisers, special assistants and MPAs often skip sessions.

Assembly witnesses heated debate on ‘politically-motivated’ postings, transfers

The assembly speaker and opposition members repeatedly asked the cabinet members to ensure their presence in the house.

During the sitting chaired by Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, the chief minister said he would try his level best to attend more and more assembly sessions in future.

In a lighter vein, he said he had come to the house to know how much the fellow lawmakers missed him.

Leader of the opposition Akram Khan Durrani likened the chief minister’s arrival to the advent of spring in the house.

“The ministers, advisers, special assistants and MPAs make a beeline to the assembly whenever the chief minister shows up. It is similar to the arrival of spring,” he said.

Speaking at a point of order, Munawar Khan of the JUI-F said it was good to see the chief minister attend the session.

He said the chief minister should attend the house at least once a week whenever it held a session.

“Often the house doesn’t have relevant ministers to reply to our quarries and therefore, we have to wait for months to get answers,” he said, adding that if the chief minister comes to the assembly, his ministers will follow suit.

Earlier, a heated debate was witnessed in the house over the ‘politically-motivated’ posting and transfer of the government employees in the province.

Opposition leader Akram Durrani said the government victimised its employees, whose families had political backgrounds other than the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

“Such government employees are frequently transferred from one post to another within months,” he said.

The opposition leader demanded of the government to assure the house that postings and transfers would take place on merit in future.

Khushdil Khan of the Awami National Party said the executive was the third pillar of the state, which functioned under the KP Civil Servants Act, 1973.

He said the government had framed rules under the KPCSA under which the tenure of a government servant in an office was two to three years but that was rarely followed.

The lawmaker said several ex-cadre officers had occupied the posts of the secretaries of the important government departments spreading unrest among federal and provincial bureaucrats.

He said the posting of ex-cadre officers on ‘schedule posts’ was a violation of the Peshawar Higher Court’s orders issued on Feb 13, 2017.

The lawmaker said the court had ordered the repatriation of all officers posted on the important position in the provincial bureaucracy.

Inayatullah Khan of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal said transfers and postings on political consideration was a violation of the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who in every function announced support for the appointments and postings purely on merit.

He said several elementary and secondary education secretaries were changed in a short span of time.

The lawmaker said 50 percent of the teachers had working on the management cadre posts.

“When decisions are made on merit, the image of the government will improve in the people’s eyes,” he said.

Mr Inayatullah said the province had many competent officers, who could perform excellently as deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners but they never got big posts for not being influential.

Lawmakers Laiq Khan, Sardar Yousaf and Lutfur Rehman also participated in the debate.

Responding to the queries of the opposition members, finance minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said there was no doubt that the civil service needed a lot of improvements, which the successive governments unfortunately failed to do.

He said the tenure of every post of the government servants was defined in the rules but there existed no mechanism about officers, who were unable to deliver the goods.

The session was later adjourned until Thursday.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2019