PESHAWAR, June 14: The lawmaker of Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Mufti Kifayatullah, has asked Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to resign for the sake of judiciary.

“The recent financial scam has tainted judiciary, therefore, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry should voluntarily step down,” said the lawmaker from Mansehra while taking part in budget debate on Thursday. He said that Justice Chaudhry resignation would be in the larger interest of the judiciary.

His remarks caused commotion in the house and lawmakers of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz demanded of the member to withdraw his comments. However, the MMA member refused to back out of his demand.

PML-N member Barrister Javed Abbasi and his colleagues chanted slogans and termed Justice Chaudhry a symbol of justice in the country. The treasury benches welcomed Mufti’s demand by thumping desks.

Legislators from treasury and opposition benches continued discussion on the budget for the year 2012-13. The opposition members were of the view that government had ignored under-developed areas in the budget and focused only on few districts.

The opposition proposed that government should develop mechanism for equal distribution of funds among the districts.

Mr Abbasi, speaking on the budget, said that government on the pattern of National Finance Commission should set up an independent commission in the province to ensure fair and transparent distribution of resources among the 25 districts. He said that the existing provincial finance commission had lost its reliability. He proposed that government should focus on under-developed districts like Dera Ismail Khan, Torghar, Kohistan and Tank.

Mr Abbasi demanded abolition of the practice of umbrella scheme, saying it caused delay in completion of development projects.

He also criticised government for presenting Rs29 billion revised budget and termed it unlawful and unconstitutional. He said that line departments had utilised Rs29 billon without seeking approval from the assembly.

PPP-S lawmaker Mohammad Ali Khan said that performance of police was poor despite spending Rs22 billion annually. He said that there was jungle law in the province and police had failed to curb crimes. He opposed free distribution of laptop computers and suggested that Rs1 billion allocated for the scheme should be spent on provision of basic facilities to schools and colleges.

PML-Q member Wajih Zaman Khan said that government had focused on five districts in the new development plan while the rest of the districts had been ignored in the budget. He said that more than 70 per cent industrial units had been closed in the province owing to shortage of electricity. He suggested to the government to start work on hydel power generation projects to resolve the energy crises. Mr Khan urged government to eliminate the practice of taking commissions (from contractors) by government officials. He said that ratio of commission in national building departments had reached up to 40 per cent that had largely affected quality of work.

Mufti Kifayatullah demanded establishment of university in Abbottabad, upgradation of Ayub Medical College Abbottabad to university level and establishment of agricultural university in Mensehra.