PESHAWAR, May 11: The combined opposition in the NWFP Assembly is reported to have agreed to withdraw a requisition notice submitted by 54 legislators group on May 2, for summoning an assembly session in 14 days. Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan on Tuesday invited the opposition leaders to his chamber and asked them to withdraw the requisition notice to give time to the government to complete its budget making exercise and.

Later, the leaders gathered at the Speaker’s House and briefed Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani about non-execution of the opposition MPAs’ development schemes identified in the previous budget.

Mr Durrani, sources said, assured them that the previous development schemes would be executed in time and the opposition MPAs would be given a share of schemes in the next annual development programme.

Mr Durrani also invited the 53 opposition MPAs to a dinner at Frontier House on Saturday.

He was persuading them to withdraw the requisition notice so that the government could give final touches to the annual budget, sources added.

“If the opposition leaders refuse to withdraw the notice, the speaker is bound to convene the session on May 16,” sources said but believed that the opposition would certainly withdraw the requisition notice by Saturday.

In the past, the opposition had got summoned a special session to discuss large scale transfers and postings made on political grounds and unjust and illegal recruitments, but it had bailed out the provincial government by referring the controversial matters to the concerned committees.

The combined opposition, known as a friendly opposition, had never challenged the government on any issue. It had lent complete support to the government on the Shariat Bill and its conservative stand on other political issues.

Opposition leader Shahzada Mohammad Gustasip Khan, an independent lawmaker, had always preferred to take a middle position on every political issue.