Daily Times

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday unanimously passes five different resolutions seeking subsidy on natural gas to KP people and payment of outstanding dues by the federal government to provincial government under different heads.

In a resolution moved by ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak, it was said that under article 158 of the constitution the priority would be given to a province where the natural gas was explored and being supplied. It said that KP province was producing cheapest gas at the rate of $4 per MMBTU however the federal government was importing gas at the rate of $25 per MMBTU and applying weighted average cost on it and providing it to KP at the same rate.

The House asked the provincial government to recommend the federal government to provide gas to KP people at $4 per MMBTU as per the constitutional requirement.

Similarly, a resolution moved by KP Minister Shaukat Yousafzai referring to Article 161(1)(B) of the constitution asked the provincial government to recommend the federal government to provide Federal Excise duty directly to the province and also pay outstanding dues in this regard.

Another resolution moved by KP Minister Shaukat Yousafzai regarding Windfall Levy on Oil as envisaged in the federal government Petroleum policy of August 30, 2012, said that the amount under this head should be equally divided among the federal government and the provinces.

A resolution moved by JI MPA Inayatullah it was demanded that the federal government should be recommended to pay outstanding dues of Rs10.187 billion under electricity heads to the provincial government. The PPP member Nighat Orakzai in her resolution said that the Speaker Rest House should be returned to provincial assembly like the chief minister and governor houses which were taken back from the Tourism Department and given into the custody of the respective departments. All the five resolutions were unanimously passed by the House, chaired by Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan.

The KP Assembly also passed KP Teachers (Appointment and Regularization of Services) Bill, 2022 to regularize the services of as many as 38,000 teachers across the provinces including in the merged districts. The Bill was moved in the House by Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Shahram Khan Tarakai.

The minister said that KP government was taking pragmatic measure for the welfare of teachers, adding that the bill would regularize the services of 38,000 ad-hoc basis teachers throughout the province inducted till June 30, 2022 from the date of their appointments and pension would be given to them.

Meanwhile, the House also passed the KP Fisheries and Aquaculture Bill, 2022 and tabled KP Universities (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022 and KP Regularization of Services of Employees of District Governance and Community Development Project Bill, 2022 which were moved by Minister for Higher Education Kamran Khan Bangash.

Earlier, the House was informed in response to a question by Rehana Ismail of JUI-F that an amount of Rs100.450 million was deposited in the provincial kitty during the year 2019-20 and 2020-21 under the previous “Prime Minister scheme of domestic poultry farming scheme.

He said that KP government distributed 703,758 chickens among 117,293 at the rate of Rs1050 to each beneficiary family. The prime objective of the scheme was not to make earning for government rather to reduce poverty through promoting domestic poultry farming.

To another question by Nighat Orakzai of PPP, it was informed that Rs241.012 million was allocated for local government department of district Orakzai of which Rs64.060 million were released and Rs38.035 million spent so far.

Minister for Minorities’ Affairs Wazirzada informed the House in response to a calling attention notice of Wilson Wazir that KP government would provide compensation to the victims of Al-Saint Church blast as soon as the details of the victims would be provided by the Commissioner Peshawar and concern department in this regard.