PESHAWAR, Oct 3: The NWFP Assembly on Friday demanded that the federal government should restrain from privatizing the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco).
Speaking on an adjournment motion against the privatization of Pesco, Abdul Akbar Khan of the People’s Party Parliamentarians said that under the Article 157 (2) a province could supply power for transmission and distribution, impose tax on consumption of electricity, construct grid stations, lay transmission lines and determine the tariff for the distribution of electricity.
According to the AGN Kazi Formula of 1984, he said, the NWFP had paid all expenses incurred by Wapda on power infrastructure of the province. If Wapda had failed to run Pesco, it should hand over the company to the province, he said.
He asked the provincial government to take over Pesco or form a consortium in order to purchase the company. The provincial government should retain 51 per cent of shares, while the remaining 49 per cent shares must go to the private parties, he added.
At present, Mr Khan said, Pesco was in 24 per cent deficit and was not making any concrete efforts to come out of it. Nepra had let the company to make a gradual increase in its tarriff to overcome its present losses, he added.
Deputy speaker Ikramullah Shahid, Bashir Ahmed Bilour of the Awami National Party, Makhdoom Mureed Kazim of the PPP-S, Abdul Majid Khan and Maulana Amanullah of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and Minister for Local Government Sardar Mohammad Idrees endorsed the adjournment motion.
PPP leader Abdul Akbar Khan requested Speaker Bakht Jahan Khan to suspend the proceedings and allow him to present a resolution on the issue instead. The speaker, after suspending the proceedings under the Article 240 allowed Mr Khan to present a collective resolution on the issue.
Mr Khan tabled a collective resolution on behalf of the entire house, which the assembly unanimously adopted.
Earlier, speaking on a point of order, Kashif Azam of the MMA criticized the ongoing military operation in the south Waziristan agency and termed it a ‘deliberate killing of the Muslim people’.
He said all those killed in the so-called military operation were not terrorists. “What sort of terrorists were they who lived in villages with their wives and children,” Mr Kashif asked.
He said:”We condemn it, so the provincial government condemns it as well. Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali is getting the Muslim people killed only to please his masters in America.”
Reacting to the remarks against the prime minister, Nighat Orakzai of the PML-Q said Mr Jamali was in the US, and the operation was going on when the MMA was ruling the NWFP province.
Earlier, during the question-answer hour, Minister for Zakat and Ushr and Social Welfare Hafiz Hashmat Ali denied to provide the details regarding the dissolution of Zakat committees in various districts.
Mr Khan, however, was of the view that the minister had dissolved all Zakat committees to facilitate his party workers in the city.
But the minister assured his fellow MPAs that in this regard they could witness all records in his office.
PML-Q’s Nasreen Khattak drew the attention of the speaker towards the closure of the institute for blinds and establishment of the detoxification centre for addicts in the same building on the G.T. Road.
Replying to this, the minister for social welfare told the house that the institute had not been closed.
Later, Minister for Health Inyatullah Khan introduced the NWFP (Medical Relief) Endowment Fund Bill, 2003.
Abdul Akbar Khan and Bashir Ahmed Bilour opposed the bill.
The speaker prorogued the session for an indefinite period.