PESHAWAR, Sept 27: NWFP Assembly Deputy Speaker Ikramullah Shahid has urged the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal's supreme council to replace Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani with a 'suitable' person saying that he has failed to deliver.

Talking to Dawn in the speaker's chamber on Monday, Mr Shahid said the Durrani administration had failed to fulfil pledges the MMA had made with people during its election campaign two years ago.

He said both the opposition and treasury MPAs were fed up with the 'discriminatory' attitude of the chief minister who had deprived most of the constituencies of their share in development funds.

The government, he added, had destroyed all norms of equality, justice and fair play in the province. Mr shahid said he had the prerogative to convene the assembly session under Rule 21 of the Procedure and Conduct of Rules of Business but added that he would not do so in the larger interest of parliamentary traditions.

He said Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan should not have adjourned the current session on Sept 22 for two weeks as he (Mr Shahid) was available to run the business of the house.

He said the speaker and the deputy had been elected to run the house but complained that he was not being trusted with the job in the absence of the speaker. He said the government was opposed to him as he had criticized the government policies being representative of a particular constituency, adding that the government wanted him to keep silence on its wrong doings.

Mr Shahid said he had called the meeting of the parliamentary groups to discuss the future line of action. He said the leader of the combined opposition endorsed his views and asked him to resume the session, but he would not summon it. "I will not facilitate intriguers by convening the session to play their game. I will wait for the speaker to come back from abroad and summon the session," he said.

He disagreed with a suggestion that 'invisible quarters' had forced him not to convene the session. Leader of Opposition Shahzada Mohammad Gustasap, Bashir Ahmed Bilour of the Awami National Party, Qazi Mohammad Asad Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League, Abdul Akbar Khan of the People's Party Parliamentarians, Anwar Kamal Khan of the PML-N and Syed Mureed Kazim of the PPP attended the meeting called by the deputy speaker.