PESHAWAR: Treasury members in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Saturday condemned Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz for a second consecutive day over her remarks that her province faces more threats from other provinces than from India.
During a session chaired by MPA Anwar Khan from the panel of chairmen here, ruling PTI lawmaker Obaidur Rehman said the PML-N always played ‘dirty’ politics but whenever someone turned against it, it played the women’s card.
‘If a woman chief minister [Maryam Nawaz] calls people from three provinces militants, it is unfair for us to remain silent just because she is a woman,’ he said.
Mr Rehman said Punjab enjoyed power and gas supplies from KP but had regrettably banned the inter-provincial movement of wheat, the only thing it produced.
Referring to a recent statement of Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi that thecountry’s governance system has collapsed, the treasury lawmaker said those who had destroyed national institutions had held courts, assemblies and resources hostage.
He insisted that the system would be fixed only when everyone worked within their constitutional domains.
‘As a political worker, I will do politics and a teacher will teach. If those responsible for protecting the country’s borders focus on their actual job, the system will be fixed,’ he said.
Treasury MPA Ajab Gul Wazir said the country had become a laboratory where political and administrative experiments had been conducted since independence.
He added that those who could reach the Punjab chief minister would have attacked her for making such a statement.
‘Price hike can be tolerated but the law and order situation can’t. We can’t even think about the way law-enforcement personnel are being mercilessly targeted,’ he said, adding that the entire system of governance has been exposed.
Defending party leader Maryam Nawaz, member of the opposition PML-N Afshan Hussain said her party had never used derogatory remarks against treasuryleaders.
‘The Punjab chief minister had never called KP residents militants but had talked about security threats and the movement of militants from neighbouring countries into Punjab,’ she insisted.The lawmaker said women in Madian area had taken to the streets after a nineyear-old child was abused and killed. She urged the PTI government to take steps to protect children.
Treasury member Shah Turab noted that the Punjab government ran on resources transported from other provinces.
Another PTI MPA, Anwar Zeb, said the Punjab chief minister’s statement was risky as she wanted to divide the country.
‘We strongly condemn the statement.
She [Maryam Nawaz] has humiliated KP, Balochistan and Sindh residents,’ he said.
Treasury lawmaker Mohammad Naeem said a Swat resident, Khursheed, had been picked up, with his whereabouts being not known. He requested the chair to issue orders for the man’s early recovery, saying if the resident is involved in any crime, he should be tried in a court of law.
The chair ordered Swat police to immediately recover Khursheed and resolve the issue.
Mohammad Nisar of the opposition ANP claimed that Bannu district police officer Furgan Bilal had kept DSP Rehmatullah Khan in illegal confinement for several days.
He added that the DSP later shared his ordeal with the KP police chief.
The lawmaker requested the chair to refer the matter to the relevant house committee for discussion and recommendations.
Treasury member Daud Jan expressedreservation about the outsourcing of public schools in Kohat district and complained that the rate of exam results was already low there, while the recruited teachers received just Rs18,000 per month.
MPA Asif Khan Mehsud insisted that the way the Punjab chief minister spoke against the people of other provinces never represented the residents of Punjab, so he strongly condemned her statement.
He added that a military operation had been under way in South Waziristan for almost 22 years. He held India responsible for the current chaos in the area.
Without naming Ali Amin Khan Gandapur, the lawmaker said a former chief minister called Mehsud tribesmen and claimed to have released Rs1.3 billion for him, but he preferred explaining everything about it to the people of his constituency.
He said Mr Gandapur had also claimed the release of Rs3 billion for Mr Mehsud for development projects in PK-109.
Claiming to have received nothing, Mr Mehsud requested the chair to refer the issue to the house’s special committee to check how much money has actually been released.
He said if no funding release was found, responsibility should be fixed for dividing PTI workers.
The chair observed that he would request Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati to look into the matter.
He later adjourned the sitting until Monday afternoon.