PESHAWAR, April 20: NWFP lawmakers on Wednesday adopted a unanimous resolution demanding stern action against the Punjab police for assaulting journalists who accompanied Pakistan People’s Party leader Asif Ali Zardari on his April 16 journey from Dubai to Lahore.
They called upon the federal and Punjab governments to hold an inquiry into the incident and award exemplary punishment to those responsible for it.
Earlier, reporters in the press gallery staged a token walkout to condemn what they called police ‘high-handedness’ at the Lahore airport. A delegation of MPAs visited the press gallery and expressed solidarity with media-people, who urged them to adopt a unanimous resolution against the incident.
Mian Nadir Shah of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal tabled a joint resolution, denouncing the assault on journalists and snatching of their laptops, cameras and cell-phones by police. The mover said that the incident was an attack on the freedom of press which should not be allowed to go unnoticed. The house passed the resolution unanimously.
Meanwhile, Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan referred two privilege motions to the standing committee on privileges. Nighat Orakzai of the Pakistan Muslim League and Muzaffar Said of the MMA had moved the identical motions, drawing the attention of the house to an incident involving the National Highway Authority staff and the speaker on March 25 at the Kohat Tunnel.
The speaker was on his way to Kohat to inspect an irrigation scheme when the incident occurred. The NHA staff had allegedly desecrated the national flag on the speaker’s car.
The NHA staff had allowed the escorting police pick-up to pass, but stopped the speaker and some MPAs accompanying him, apparently for non-payment of toll tax.
The house was informed that the speaker was exempted from the toll tax.
The movers insisted that the chairman of the National Highway Authority and the district police officer of Kohat should be summoned by the standing committee on privileges.
Later, Abdul Akbar Khan of the People’s Party Parliamentarians through an adjournment motion drew the attention of the house to ‘excessive’ collection of agricultural tax and agricultural income tax from farmers of Mardan.
He said the agricultural tax ratio in the NWFP was more than what was charged in other provinces and demanded that the disparity should come to an end.
On behalf of the chief minister, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohammad Ayaz Khan tabled the NWFP Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2005. Health Minister Inyatullah Khan presented reports of the Auditor-General of Pakistan in the house.
Later, the speaker prorogued the house.