PESHAWAR: Members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday unanimously passed a resolution to demand a 300 per cent increase in their salary to bring it on par with the Balochistan MPAs’.

The resolution was moved in the house by JUI-F member Maulana Asmatullah.

Reading out the resolution, he said, “This assembly demands from the provincial government to bring the salaries and other allowances of its members on par with those of the members of the Balochistan Assembly, which is the poorest province in the country.” The resolution was passed unanimously with a loud shout of ‘Yes’ when Speaker Asad Qaiser put it to vote.

Currently, each member of the KP Assembly draws around Rs92,000 salary every month, while the monthly salary of every Balochistan MPA is more than Rs400,000, a local lawmaker told Dawn.

“I am sure that the government will increase our salary threefold,” he said.

The lawmaker said the resolution regarding the MPAs’ salary was passed unanimously and the implementation of unanimously passed resolution was binding on the provincial government.

Pass resolution asking govt to bring their salary and allowances on par with Balochistan PA members’

Asked why the Balochistan Assembly was cited a reason for pay raise call, mover of the resolution Asmatullah said, “We have identical culture.” He however didn’t say that the salary of MPAs in Balochistan was every high.

Earlier, the house passed Rs26.4 billion supplementary budget.

Speaker Asad Qaisar also formed a special committee of the house to verify the claims of the government on drastic reforms in its departments.

The names of the committee members will be notified afterwards.

The special committee was formed on the suggestion of ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak and after the approval of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.

The committee’s formation came after the opposition rejected the chief minister’s claim about drastic reforms in the government departments insisting no such thing is visible.

The chief minister said when the PTI had formed the provincial government, no provincial department was functioning properly and that the government employees were involved in corrupt practices.

He added that in the three years, his government had introduced many reforms in all departments and that everyone could see improvement there compared with their state of affairs during the previous government.

“Previously, the thana and patwari cultures were flourishing in the province but now, they’ve changed for the better considerably,” he said.

Sardar Babak suggested that a committee of parliamentary leaders be made to ascertain whether reforms have been introduced in government departments as claimed by the CM.

He said the provincial government had failed to secure the province’s several rights from the centre during the last three years to the suffering of the province.

The ANP leader asked the government to take the opposition parties on board before initiating a case to claim the province’s share in the country’s resources.

The chair later prorogued the session.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2016