Vacant seat of Deputy Speaker: opposition stages walkout from NWFP Assembly

Joint opposition in NWFP Assembly Thursday staged walkout of the house, demanding ruling of the chair over the point of order raised against the vacant seat of Deputy Speaker for last fifteen months.
Taking the floor again on a point of order, Abdul Akbar Khan of PPP-Parliamentarians diverted the attention of the chair towards the point raised by him on Wednesday. The chair yesterday had sought the opinion of the Advocate General of the province over the matter.
The Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan, who was chairing the proceedings, said that Advocate General had sent a letter for seeking time to make preparations in this regard. He said, he had accepted the letter of Advocate General. However, Abdul Akbar Khan said that in the absence of Advocate General, Assistant Advocate General could also assist the house.
The provincial minister for Finance and Environment, Shah Raz Khan said that the Advocate General due to his busy schedule had sought some time and would ultimately in the house in a few days.
Leader of the Opposition, Shahzada Gustasip Khan said that the Speaker had directed Advocate General for seeking his opinion and assistance over the matter. The matter, he said had been thoroughly discussed yesterday (Wednesday) and the opposition was of the view that the house is completed and the ongoing business is invalid.
The Advocate General, he said was not called in the house by the opposition, but the chair to assist the house and assured opposition on the floor of the house. "If he is busy, then he himself should have come to the house and would have sought time," the opposition leader added. "We want his presence in the house, but the government has taken the matter seriously. The government should have given the time but with the consent of the house," he contended.
Sardar Mohammad Idrees, Provincial minister for Local Bodies rejected the contentions of the opposition leader and said that the house was complete. He also gave the precedent of the vacant seat of the Deputy Chairman Senate for a long time.
The speech of the minister angered opposition, who announced that they would not like to become part to invalid and illegal business of the house and would go on walkout.
Later, the house started debate on provincial budget for financial year 2007-08 and Sabira Shakir, a woman MPA of the treasury bench started her speech on budget. She termed budget as people friendly. However, she said that it would have better if government had held pre-budget talks with the opposition.
She was of the view that poverty and price hike are not big problems and termed the lack of monitoring on spending of the budget a big problem. She said that although the budget has been increased by 99 percent but due to the lack of monitoring the people are deprived of its benefits.
Taj-ul-Amin Jabal of MMA termed the budget a reformative, developmental and Awami, saying opposition has no right to criticise such a good budget. Therefore, they preferred to stage walkout of the house.
He said that MMA has come to power with the mandate of people and urged on the opposition to accept the reality. He appreciated government for initiation of developmental schemes in district Mardan. However, he called for establishment of a university and a commerce college in the district.
The speaker urged on the treasury benches to pursued opposition to bring them back to the house. The speaker told that three ministers were busy in holding negotiations with opposition. However, Minister for Information, Asif Iqbal Daudzai said that government has always given importance to opposition. He accused opposition of negative policy.
Others who spoke on the budget were including Abdul Majid Khan, Shagufta Naz, Felix Innocent and Guran Suran Lal. The NWFP Assembly Thursday condemned the killing of 30 innocent people in an air strike in Dattakhel area of North-Waziristan Agency and change in foreign policy to avert occurrence of such incidents in future.