PESHAWAR, March 14: The NWFP Assembly was told on Tuesday that the worn-out water pipelines in Mardan and its suburbs could not be replaced because of shortage of funds.

Speaking on a supplementary during the question hour, Syed Amanat Shah of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal told the house that a large number of people were suffering from hepatitis B and C in his constituency.

He said it was because of contaminated water which people of his area were constrained to use.

Minister for Works and Services Malik Zafar Azam told him that Rs2 million had been allocated for a programme for replacement of the pipelines in phases by the town municipal authority.

Lawmakers complained that their questions were not answered in time and properly.

Usually, false and outdated information was provided after one or two years, Abdul Akbar Khan of the People’s Party Parliamentarians said.

He said he had submitted a question about transfers and posting of officials to the works and services department through the Speaker’s Secretariat one year ago, but he had been provided with outdated information. He said he was not satisfied with the information given by the department.

Responding to a question by Dr Zakirullah Khan of the MMA, the minister said about 3,067 road repairers were taking care of 9,100km of roads across the NWFP and the department was short of over 500 workers.

Rejecting the claim, Bashir Ahmed Bilour of the Awami National Party said he had never seen any labourer repairing the road between Nowshera and Peshawar.

Abdul Akbar asked the minister to explain where the workers were performing their duty. He alleged that either they were working at bungalows of officials or registered as ghost employees.

Chairman of the house committee on works and services department, Mian Nisar Gul, said he had asked the department to give him a list of the repairers but it had not been provided in six months.

He said he had never seen any worker repairing any road between Karak and Peshawar.

Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani of the Pakistan Muslim League asked the chair to refer the question to the house committee concerned.

Speaker Bakht Jahan Khan advised the minister concerned to provide constituency-wise lists to all the MPAs. He directed the department to resume repair work in all those districts where it was needed.

Earlier, speaking on a point of order, Salma Babar of the PPP from Dera Ismail Khan informed the house that some MPAs dragged her from the assembly hall on March 6 and took her forcibly to the Chief Minister’s House.

She said her party colleagues Alizai brothers wanted her to vote for their candidate, but she had voted on the call of her conscience.

She said Nighat Yasmin Orakzai of the PML had rescued her. She urged the speaker to take notice of the situation.

The speaker said he would have taken action against people involved in the incident but on March 6 the premises was being manned by the provincial election commissioner.

Journalists in the Press Gallery staged a walkout for the second day against police brutality and demanded action against the SHO involved in manhandling a journalist.

The speaker adjourned the session till March 20.