PESHAWAR, Sept 30: A lawmaker of the opposition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday contradicted official figures about the death toll of All Saints Church, Peshawar attack and claimed that twin suicide attack had killed 123 churchgoers on Sept 22.

Minority MPA Askar Pervaiz of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl told the House that the list issued by the provincial government about the death toll of church attack was not correct and that total 123 people had been perished in the bombing attack instead of 83 as claimed by the government.

The assembly session has been convened on the requisition of the opposition parties to discuss security situation in the province in the aftermath of twin suicide bombing attack on the church near Kohati Gate and express solidarity with the bereaved Christian Community.

Deputy Speaker Imtiaz Shahid presided over the proceedings.

Former Bishop Mano Roomal Shah and other representatives of the Christian Community were present in the Speaker’s gallery.

A clash between Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MPA Soran Singh and Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Nighat Orakzai disrupted somberness of the floor and turned the House into a fish market.

Both lawmakers used unparliamentary language as the chair was looking helpless in restoring order in the House.

Soran Singh, who is also a special assistant to the chief minister, blamed that opposition was trying to draw political mileage from current wave of terrorism in Peshawar and had no sympathies with affected families.

He alleged that former information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain and MPA Nighat Orakzai had tried to provoke people after attack on the church.

“They should be ashamed of doing politics over the dead bodies,” he remarked. He also accused MPA Askar Pervaiz of exaggerating situation. His remakes irritated opposition benches.

MPA Nighat Orakzai waving blood stained dress of children killed in Qissa Khwani Bazaar blast rushed towards Soran Singh’s desk. MPAs of the opposition benches brought their colleague back to her seat.

Earlier, there was a pin-drop silence in the House when Askar Pervaiz, affiliated with JUI-F, narrated the ordeal of the families who had lost their relatives in the church attack.

“Mr Speaker, the white All Saints Church has turned red and Christians buried 40 bodies in one night which had never happened in the history of Pakistan,” he said, “our entire Kalisa has been killed.”

He went on to say that several wounded persons had died in the face of non-availability of treatment at the Lady Reading Hospital. He criticized management of the Combined Military Hospital, Peshawar and Lady Reading Hospital for not providing prompt treatment to the critically-injured people.

The CMH administration was discussing fee for admitting wife of a known educationist William Ghulam who had suffered fatal injuries in attack on the church.

“Did management of CMH ask fee for providing treatment to Malala Yousafzai when she was brought to there? Why this discrimination with minority,” he said.

He said there were families, who had lost five to six members in the bombing and the government had fixed Rs500,000 for per human soul.

“What wrong Christians have done that place of their worship was attacked? Is it their (Christians) fault to set up hospitals and education institutions and produced doctors, engineers and other professionals?”

He complained that history had been distorted as Christians and Hindus were portrayed as invaders in the textbooks.

“This is a fact that minority is nothing without Pakistan, but this is also a reality that Pakistan is nothing without minorities,” he observed, adding that minorities believed in peace and white part of the national flag belonged to them.

ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak said PTI Chairman Imran Khan visited Peshawar after attack on the church due to the international pressure.

He said the PTI chief had vowed before general elections that he would clean bold three players with single ball, but now he got clean bold.

Mr Babak said the previous government had taken ownership of operation in Malakand division in 2009, but the PTI-led coalition government had completely subdued before militants.

“The difference between PTI and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan is that the former accepts its responsibility while the latter owns responsibility of bombings,” he said and urged the provincial and federal governments to take serious steps for restoration of peace in the region.

He asked the centre to understand ground realities and play its role for eliminating factories of suicide bombers from Fata.