PESHAWAR: Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani Tuesday announced that two committees would be constituted to review and recommend perks and privileges for the legislators.
He told the Provincial Assembly that he would constitute a committee for MPAs while the Chief Minister would constitute a committee for the cabinet members and both the committees would present their recommendations in that regard.
Earlier, Inayatullah of Jamaat-i-Islami pointed out that the houses of cabinet members were not reasonable according to their portfolios , adding that the public departments were also not paying attention to maintenance of their accommodations.
Minister for Local Government Akbar Ayub said in the past the administrative staff of public departments used to take all the stuff from the ministers’ and legislators’ accommodations as soon as those got vacated after completion of the assembly’s tenure. He said that there should be a proper mechanism to stop this practice.
Minister for IT Muhammad Atif Khan said that his salary was Rs 18000 in 2013 when he became minister and Chief Minister’s salary was Rs 21000 while the salary of his PS was Rs 48000 at that time. He demanded rationalization of everything related to the legislators.
Nighat Orakzai of PPP said that the legislators could not afford necessary items and demanded raise in their salaries and other privileges.
The female legislators of both the treasury and opposition benches staged a walk out from the House in protest against the statement of Nisar Mohmand of ANP who said that female legislators get more development funds despite being unelected members of the house.
The speakers asked the members from treasury and opposition benches to negotiate with the female MPAs and bring them back to the House.
Later, the female legislators ended their protests and came back to the House.