PESHAWAR: The treasury benches in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly were embarrassed on Friday when senior minister Mohammad Atif Khan piled criticism on information minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai for postponing a scheduled meeting of the house’s special committee looking into anomalies in the Billion Tree Tsunami afforestation project on his own.

The house witnessed ruckus as the opposition protested the alleged partisan role of the assembly’s speaker and secretary.

Speaker Mushtaq Ghani warned that the sitting would be adjourned if the opposition continued disturbance.

Minister criticised over last-minute postponement of afforestation meeting

The minister’s spin on the special committee overjoyed the opposition benches.

The committee headed by Mr Yousafzai was scheduled to visit the sites of tree plantation in Bannu district on Thursday.

“I think Shaukat Yousafzai is so busy giving statements to media about ministers that he postponed the meeting,” said Atif Khan when Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani gave him the floor to give the government’s viewpoint over the deferment of the special committee’s meeting.

Mr Yousafzai, who met Prime Minster Imran Khan in Islamabad on Thursday, told media later that reshuffle in the provincial cabinet was on the cards and that portfolios of several ministers could be changed.

The statement has created apprehensions among his cabinet colleagues regarding the government’s expected move.

The government and opposition had agreed to set up a special committee to probe anomalies in the multibillion rupees afforestation programme, a signature project of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

The opposition alleged large-scale irregularities and corruption in the project, which was completed during the five years tenure of the last PTI government in the province.

On a point of order, opposition leader Akram Durrani said the committee was scheduled to inspect various afforestation sites in Bannu, where the government claimed to have planted millions of saplings under the tsunami project.

He said the information minister was nowhere to be found to join other members of the committee, who were waiting in Bannu to inspect plantation sites.

Mr Durrani said the minister informed over the phone that the opposition had submitted collective resignations from standing committees to the speaker and therefore, the special committee’s meeting had been cancelled.

He said the minister’s argument was invalid and irrelevant as the opposition resigned from standing committees and not the house’s special committee.

The opposition leader said the speaker had yet to accept those resignations.

He asked if the speaker or secretary of the assembly had ordered the postponement of the committee’s visit.

Secretary Nasrullah Khattak whispered into the speaker’s ears when the latter sought the former’s help to pacify the opposition on the question.

Mr Durrani asked the speaker to accept resignations of the opposition from standing committees but said the resignations should have nothing to do with the meeting of the special committee.

He criticised the secretary for ‘misguiding’ the chair on the issue and warned that the opposition won’t let the house function for a minute if the government tried to bypass it.

The opposition leader said the assembly did not act on the court’s judgments.

Speaker Ghani said the chairman of a committee could postpone meetings if he was not available or had other important engagements.

He said the information minister’s argument was valid as the opposition didn’t specifically mention resignations from the standing committees only.

The speaker asked the opposition to wait for the information minister to respond to the matter on the floor of the house.

Senior minister Atif Khan said the speaker had yet to accept resignations and therefore, MPAs of the opposition continued to part of the committees.

He said the special committee’s meeting was not to be postponed.

Shaukat Yousafzai instead of responding to the opposition’s allegations in the house held a news conference at the civil secretariat’s cabinet room.

Later, local government minister Shahram Khan Tarakai moved the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

The lawmakers began a debate on it clause by clause.

The opposition leader asked the government to refer the bill to the house’s select committee for passage with consensus instead of holding a debate in the house. The proposal was turned down, however.

The treasury and opposition members suggested amendments to 47 clauses and sub-clauses of the bill. The sitting was later adjourned until Monday.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2019