PESHAWAR: Vociferous protest and desk thumping by the opposition members failed to stop the passage of the controversial Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2019, by the provincial assembly on Monday.

Despite sloganeering the peeved Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani did not give up and continued with the agenda to pass this vital bill.

The opposition members tore apart copies of the agenda and encircled the speaker’s dice. The trouble began when the chair didn’t give the floor to Awami National Party MPA Bahadur Khan to speak on a point of order. The lawmaker tore apart the agenda’s copy and staged a walkout.

Khushdil Khan advocate and other ANP MPAs followed him.

Opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani asked MPAs of the opposition to continue besieging the speaker’s dice.

MMA member says parties, nazims to challenge law amendments in court

The protesters shouted slogans and thumped desks to disrupt the proceedings. The speaker sought the help from opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani to pacify protesters, but to no avail.

Amid sloganeering, Speaker Mushtaq Ghani gave the floor to minister for law and parliamentary affairs Sultan Mohammad Khan to introduce the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Continuation of Laws in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Area Bill, 2019, to provide for the continuation of laws in the newly-merged tribal districts.

The minister introduced the bill and in the same breath moved its draft for passage.

The opposition insisted that the bill could not be passed without consideration by the house.

Section 3 (1) of the bill says that notwithstanding anything contained in any other law, for the time being in force, all the laws, regulations, rules, notification and bye-laws, including Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulation, 2011 or any other legal instrument, applicable in the erstwhile Fata and having had the force of law, under or in pursuance of Article 247 of the Constitution and now omitted vide the Constitution 25th Act, 2018, shall continue to remain in force until altered, repealed or amended by the competent authority.

Sub-Section 2 (1) shall not be applicable to the Fata Interim Governance Regulation, 2018 and Frontier Crimes Regulation, 1901.

The local government bill was also passed without debate on amendments as the opposition continued protest.

The treasury and opposition members suggested 44 amendments to the bill. However, it was not clear due to the pandemonium as to which amendments became part of the bill or which was dropped.

Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MPA Inayatullah Khan told reporters after the proceedings that the government bulldozed amendments suggested by the opposition to the bill.

He said political parties, nazims and councillors would challenge these amendments in the court.

The opposition lawmaker said the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was taking credit for the existing local government system for the past five years which was introduced in 2013.

He said the international organisations including World Bank had commended the system, but now PTI was drawing curtain on its own law.

“PM Imran Khan had supported the existing system at different forums and termed it a revolution but now his party changed it,” he said.

Information minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai criticised the opposition for creating disturbance in the house.

He said the opposition should table its amendments instead of creating pandemonium.

The bill was introduced on last Tuesday to make drastic changes, including reverting control of 10 devolved departments to the provincial government from district and abolishing of district tier of the local government system.

The new LG system will comprise only tehsil and village and neighbourhood councils after abolishing posts of district nazim and councils.

The power currently resting with the district government will be devolved to the tehsil local government.

In the new system, elections for the tehsil chairman will be conducted directly on a party basis, while in the existing system, it is also held on a party basis but direct in which the council used to elect one of its councillors as nazim.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2019