PESHAWAR: The provincial assembly hurriedly passed the much-trumpeted Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Prevention of Conflict of Interest Bill 2016 on Friday af ter reducing the number of the original bill`s clauses to 25 from 65.

It was a unique occasion in the parliamentary history of the province that an important bill, which had been pending with the house`s select committee since November 2014, was passed without provision of its copies to lawmakers.

The MPAs got copies af ter the passage stage.

After the passage of the bill, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa became the first province to have a law related to conflict of interest.

Significant clauses were removed from the original bill aimed at establishing the clear conflict of interest and related post-employment principles for public officeholders, preventing and minimising the possibility of conflicts arising between the private interests and public duties of public of fice holders in the province.

Under the new law, a public officeholder includes governor, chief minister, provincial cabinet member, speaker of the assembly, provincial minister, adviser and special assistant to chief minister etc.Officials of the police departments, university vice-chancellors and other officers of the education departments have been excluded from the law.

The category of government officials has the chief secretary, additional chief secretary, administrative secretaries to the government and special secretaries only.

The subordinate judiciary, nazims and naib nazims of local councils and several categories of officials performing in the province related to the local government, development authorities, banks, financial institutions, firms, corporations or organisations established or controlled by the provincial government have been removed from the reviewed draft.

Part-VIII which dealt with divestments of assets by the public office holder after his appointment was also removed.

Similarly, Part-IV, which included wide ranging rules, has also been removed.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who also holds the portfolio of the establishment department, chaired the meeting of the house`s select committee on Thursday in which important clauses were remove d f rom the original bill.

`It has now become a harmless and toothless law because whole definitions have been changed,` said a senior functionary.

`Chief Minister wanted to exclude the of fice of the governor from the bill, too, but it was opposed,` he said.

Pervez Khattak`s brother is serving as the district nazim of Nowshera, while the brother of minister of state and revenue Ali Amin Gandapurholds the office of district nazim in Dera Ismail Khan.

The PA speaker, several cabinet members, MPAs and officers own educational institutions, tobacco business, construction companies and other businesses.

Sources said the copies of the bill landed at the assembly secretariat shortly before the start of the proceedings.

They said the establishment department provided the secretariat with the bill`s four copies only.

The bill was introduced in the assembly on November 19, 2014, before being referred to the select committee.

The committee sent the bill to the house on August 10, 2105 and that it was recommitted to the committee for further deliberation.

The committee didn`t dispose of the business in the due time of one month.

The bill was brought on the agenda in January but it didn`t sail through due to a lack of quorum.

It was sent back to the committee for further deliberation.

Both sides of the house were not in favour of the bill containing 65 clauses.

`It happened for the first time that such an important piece of law had been passed without distributing copies and discussion in the House, said another of ficial.

He said the government was under pressure from the party leadership to pass the law.

`The passed bill is also discriminatory as the wide ranging government officials had not been included in the definition of public officeholder, whereas only few of them including chief secretary have been included in it,` he said.

The passed bill provides that a public office holder should recuse himself from any discussion, decision, debate or vote on any matter in respect of which he is be in a conflict of interest.

Under the new law, there will be a prevention of conflict of interest and ethics commission comprising a chairman to be appointed by the government on the recommendation of the two-member selection committee.

One member of the commission will be a retired civil servant in BPS-20 or above.

Initially, the selection committee comprises four members. The chairman and members of the commission will hold the office for a term of three years. After completion of the tenure, they will not be eligible for reappointment.

The suo moto powers of the commission mentioned in the original bill have also been removed in the present bill. Now, the commission will only act on a request made by a citizen that shouldn`t be anonymous.