PESHAWAR, June 28: The NWFP Assembly on Thursday approved nine demands for grant worth Rs1.477 billion to meet excessive expenditures to be borne by the home, tribal affairs and civil defence, revenue and estates, excise and taxation and prisons and police departments till June 30, 2007.

Opposition lawmakers opposed the approval of grant for revenue and estates and police departments. They expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of both the departments and asked the minister concerned to explain where this huge amount (Rs722 million) had been spent and provide a breakdown of the expenditures to the house.

They said the government had spent an excessive amount of Rs754 million on the general administration, home and tribal affairs, prisons and police departments, but people had no respite from the growing menace of lawlessness in the tribal as well settled districts of the province.

Speaking on a cut motion on the allocation for police force, Bashir Ahmed Bilour of the Awami National Party said how could they approve such a huge amount for a force which had failed to catch even a single suicide bomber in the province?

He said police had so for failed to trace the killers of police officers Malik Saad, Abid Ali and Khan Raziq, adding that the government needed a sound financial discipline for the improvement of department’s performance.

He said if the chief minister had no role to play in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, then why the provincial government allocated huge funds for maintaining law and order in the tribal areas.

Opposition Leader Shahzada Gustasap had asked the minister concerned to provide details of the Rs722 million spent by the revenue department. He said that people of the earthquake-hit areas were anxiously waiting for their compensatory cheques.

Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai, who was responding to cut motions on behalf of Revenue Minister Maulana Ismatullah, said the revenue department had distributed Rs670 million among the affected and displaced people of the quake-hit region. The opposition leader asked the minister to provide them the breakdown of funds distributed among the people.

Bashir Ahmed Bilour said the government wanted them to approve the amount which it had already spent on things unspecified in budget documents.

Abdul Akbar Khan of the People’s Party Parliamentarians said MPAs had not been taken into confidence about the expenditure of this huge amount.

The speaker put the motion before the house and called for a vote on it. The house defeated the cut motion by a majority vote and approved the demand for grant on revenue spending.

Earlier, winding up the debate on the supplementary budget, NWFP Finance Minister Shah Raz Khan welcomed proposals offered by the opposition lawmakers and explained some of the points raised by them.

He said the MMA had discouraged the posting of police officers on political considerations and equipped them with weapons and other gadgets.

He said the NWFP government had approved a huge amount for bar associations as lawyers were struggling for the independence of the judiciary and restoration of democracy in the country.

He said the house should collectively struggle for provincial rights.

The speaker adjourned the house till Friday.