PML factions stage walkout over ‘Pakhtunkhwa’

PESHAWAR: The lawmakers of both factions of Pakistan Muslim League (N and Q) on Wednesday staged a walkout from the budget session when Senior Minister Rahimdad Khan repeatedly called Sarhad as Pakhtunkhwa during his speech.

Khan was reading out his budget speech, perhaps written by some bureaucrat, laced with names like Sarhad, rejected by the Awami National Party MPAs and supported by both PML factions. Wherever the word Sarhad province occurred in his written speech, Khan intentionally replaced it with the word Pakhtunkhwa, which stirred a rumpus in the house.

Khan, one of the two Frontier senior ministers, was presenting the budget on behalf of his ailing colleague, Finance Minister Mohammad Humayun Khan, in the house.

‘In the Constitution, it is NWFP, while the finance minister was adamant on calling it Pakhtunkhwa. It is violation of the Constitution. If the parliament changes the name, we will accept it, but right now we oppose calling it Pakhtunkhwa,’ PML parliamentary leader Pir Sabir Shah told the journalists.

He denied that his party had endorsed ANP resolution on changing of the province’s name. ‘We had opted to abstain from the session; when the assembly had approved this resolution. Only parliament through one third majority of its members can bring any such change into the Constitution,’ he said.

Giving his party’s version, Provincial Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said calling Sarhad as Pakhtunkhwa was not unconstitutional, because President Asif Ali Zardari had called it Pakhtunkhwa on the floor of parliament and in the United Nations General Assembly.

Speaker Karamatullah Chagarmati, however, advised the minister to confine himself to the written text. But the minister kept himself oscillating between Sarhad and Pakhtunkhwa throughout the speech.

Earlier, the speaker administered oath to the newly elected MPA, Auranzeb Khan, who won the election from PF-1, Peshawar-I, which fell vacant after the assassination of his brother Alamzeb Khan.

He thanked all the political parties for extending him political support during the by-election. Khan also lashed out at the Peshawar police, which had failed to track down the killers of his brother Alamzeb Khan. He said growing incidents of kidnapping for ransom, bomb blasts, burglaries, murders and car-snatching were enough to gauge the performance of police force.

During his remarks about the journalist community, the speaker called them the ‘fifth pillar of the state.’ Perhaps, he was mixing up ‘fourth estate’ with the ‘fifth columnist.’ None of the lawmakers, even Abdul Akbar Khan, Saquibullah Chamkani, Israrullah Khan Gandapur, known for their scholarship, tried to enlighten the speaker.

Earlier, when the speaker invited the finance minister to present the budget, Pir Sabir Shah stood in his seat and proposed a discussion on the law and order situation in the province. He said it was more important to speak on the war-like situation in the province than listening to the budget speech, but the chair didn’t take his words seriously.

The speaker said he had put a ban on the guests and personal guards of the MPAs owing to the deteriorating law and order situation and danger of terror incidents in the city. He hoped that lawmakers would extend him cooperation during the budget session.

A motion tabled by Abdul Akabar Khan of Pakistan People’s Party drew the attention of the chair about the two days gap in proceedings after the budget speech and asked the speaker to reduce it. The chair entertained the suggestion and reduced the gap to one day instead of two days.

All roads leading towards assembly building remained closed till the adjournment of the sitting.