The provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday witnessed a scuffle between two legislators of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the House. The scuffle between Javed Nasim and Arbab Jehandad Khan forced the deputy speaker to adjourn the proceedings for 15 minutes.
The clash erupted after exchange of harsh arguments and then physical manhandling of each other. The members and security staff in the House intervened and dispersed the MPAs and the chair adjourned the proceedings for 15 minutes to pacify the situation. However, as soon as the House resumed proceedings, Deputy Speaker Meher Taj Roghani again adjourned the session for the day after the lack of quorum was pointed out by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) legislator Sobia Khan.
The dust-up between the PTI legislators started when Arbab Jandad Khan accused his fellow MPA Javed Nasim of using abusive language against PTI Chief Imran Khan while Javed Nasim maintained that Arbab Jandad had use inappropriate language in the House.
Meanwhile, the opposition tore apart the agenda of the House and other relevant papers of the proceedings and raised slogans of “shame shame, it’s the real change of PTI”.
The opposition members did not return to the House in protest after 15 minutes of adjournments by the chair. Later, the deputy speaker adjourned the House to meet again on May 25, Wednesday at 1500 hours.
Earlier, Amna Sardar of PML-N, on a point of order, raised the issue of ad hoc lecturers serving in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on deputation and said the provincial government has stopped paying salaries to the lecturers for the last 9 months and their regularisation is still pending.
She said that as many as 213 lecturers including females are serving in FATA since the date of their appointment in 2011; still they are being ignored by the provincial government.
Uzma Khan of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), endorsing the point of order, said that the ad hoc lecturers had time and again arranged protests against the nonpayment of salaries and non-regularisation and urged the government to at least pay their salaries before the holy month of Ramadan.
Responding to the point of order, Special Assistant to Chief Minister for Information and Higher Education Mushtaq Ghani said that they have taken up the matter with the bureaucracy, which is reluctant to do so deeming it against the law.
He said that according to the bureaucracy the lecturers were appointed on ad hoc basis and not on contract; therefore, their services cannot be regularised.
He assured to take up the matter with the FATA Directorate and KP bureaucracy for regularisation of the FATA ad hoc lectures.
Talking to media after the session, Special Assistant to Chief Minister for Information and Higher Education Mushtaq Ghani termed the rumpus as part of the routine business of the assemblies.
Meanwhile, PML-N parliamentary leader Sardar Aurengzeb Nalota, while talking to media, termed the scuffle another manifestation of the immature attitude of the PTI legislators, and called it a disgrace for the people of KP. He said that since the PTI has failed to deliver in the province, the treasury benches are seen exchanging such harsh arguments in the House.
