MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 5: The secretariat of the AJK Legislative Assembly will be purchasing a second-hand Toyota Land Cruiser costing Rs3.5 million in a couple of days for Speaker Sardar Siab Khalid. According to reliable sources, this will be the third vehicle for the personal use of the speaker.

Approval for the purchase was granted last month by the assembly's finance committee which is headed by the speaker himself, and a notification to this effect was also issued by the committee, but was not circulated to avert publicity and subsequent criticism, sources said.

The sources said that a committee had already left for Rawalpindi to buy the 5-door vehicle from a private party. The members of the committee are assembly Secretary Sardar Mohammad Azam Khan, Additional Secretary Tariq Zia Abbasi, Assistant Secretary Raja Ziaul Haq and Executive Engineer (Mechanical) Qazi Ehsan of the Public Works Department.

The vehicles already being used by the speaker are a 5-door Mitsubishi Inter cooler Pajero (2800 cc) refurbished only last year at a cost of Rs 700,000, and a 2002 model Toyota Corolla saloon car purchased only 20 months ago, sources said.