PESHAWAR, August 1(ABC): The opposition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday strongly condemned adoption of a resolution moved and passed by the treasury benches against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and said that such a resolution is against the democratic norms. Nighat Orakzai of PPP pointed out the quorum, when the resolution was moved by the Finance Minister but Panel of the Chairman Idrees Khattak continued the proceedings while ignoring her.
She resorted to stage protest in front of the speaker dice and tore apart the agenda and threw to the chair dice. However the minister for Finance and MPA Ziaullah Bangash convinced her and she ended the boycott. Meanwhile, parliamentary leader of Awami National Party (ANP) Sardar Hussain Babak said that passing the resolution in haste was not in accordance with the democratic norms.
He condemned the attitude of treasury benches and said that Tehreek-e-Insaf has buried political ethics. Babak said the price hike, economic crisis and other issues had made life miserable for everyone but the treasury benches were reluctant to talk about these issues including ban on trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
He alleged that PTI Ministers were regularly paying ransom to Taliban whenever they demanded, adding that the PTI provincial government under its leader “Taliban Khan ” had restored Tehreek Nifaz Sharia Muhammadi while also promoting Talibanisation in the province.
Maulana Lutf ur Rehman of JUIF said that PTI was silent when all the political parties were demanding fair and transparent elections and now blaming others. He said that PTI wanted a politically destabilized Pakistan. Parliamentary leader of PMLN Sardar Muhammad Yousaf condemned passing of the resolution and said that the resolutions should have been passed through a democratic norm.
He said that only three lawmakers of PTI have signed this regulation. He said that 13 political parties were standing united against PTI because they considered that PTI was incapable of running the affairs of the state. Naeema Kishwar of JUIF said that the powers of CEC was similar to the Chief Justice of Pakistan and no assembly has the right to pass a resolution against CEC, adding if the election commissioner of Pakistan takes action against the mover of the resolution he/she would be disqualified for the assembly.
Earlier, the House passed a resolution demanding resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner and all members of the commission to pave the way for holding free and fair elections in the country. The resolution presented by Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said that resignation of the CEC was essential so that all political parties unanimously constitute an impartial election commission for holding free and fair elections.
The resolution also condemned the dissolution of PTI government in the federation as part of an international conspiracy and said that the move caused political uncertainty and adversely affected the economy of the country. The resolution hoped that all the political parties would act responsibly in the wake of the prevailing situation in the country and concluded that the immediate transparent general elections were the only way to pull the country out of the present crisis.