PESHAWAR, April 2: NWFP Governor Khalilur Rehman has declined to summon a provincial assembly session on Monday for swearing in two notified women MPAs, triggering a controversy between the governor and the ruling alliance. Reacting to the governor’s move, Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani said that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) would submit a requisition to the speaker on Monday for an immediate assembly session.

“This act of the governor is a black spot on democracy. Under the constitution, he (governor) is bound to act on my advice and summon the session on Monday morning,” Mr Durrani told a councillors’ convention here on Sunday.

“The governor has been pressurised not to summon the session. He can’t independently use his power to fulfil his constitutional obligations,” he remarked.

However, a spokesman of the governor denied Mr Durrani’s charges and termed his remarks baseless and regrettable.

After the governor returned the summary with some suggestions, 34 lawmakers of the MMA signed a requisition which will be submitted to the speaker on Monday morning. “We have received signatures of 34 MPAs and will submit a requisition to the speaker at 9am on Monday. I am sure Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan will call the assembly session immediately,” the chief minister said.

Under Article 54 read with Article 127 of the Constitution, the speaker needs a requisition signed by more than one-fourth of the total membership for summoning an assembly session.

The Chief Election Commissioner notified the names of Ms Saira Bano and Ms Fouzia Naz as MPAs on March 31 on two seats which had fallen vacant after the controversial resignation of MPAs Rukhsana Raz and Yasmeen Khalid.

The two former lawmakers have challenged their controversial resignation and a notification issued by the NWFP assembly’s secretary, and their writ petitions are fixed for preliminary hearing on April 4 (Tuesday). Without naming any party, Mr Durrani said that people knew who had indulged in horse trading in the recent Senate elections and purchased loyalty of lawmakers.

“The Supreme Court should take suo moto action and I appeal to the judiciary to disqualify those senators, who were elected through horse-trading,” he said.

The spokesman of the Governor’s Secretariat, in a rejoinder to the chief minister’s remarks said that the summary for requisitioning the assembly session had been returned to the provincial government with suggestions for incorporating some necessary amendments proposed by the governor in the ordinance prohibiting kite-flying which was supposed to be passed by the provincial assembly in its forthcoming session.

As a matter of fact, the spokesman said, ordinances were always promulgated in a hurry to cope with certain urgent matters.

There was, however, a scope for amendment and improvement in such ordinances before they were presented to the assembly for debate and passage, the spokesman said.

“The governor has fulfilled his constitutional obligations and it was now incumbent on the provincial government to respond to the objections in a constitutional manner,” the statement said. It also said that the governor was not under pressure from any quarter and whatever he had done was within the constitutional framework.

It may be mentioned that the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) on March 25 expelled four of its MPAs - Maulana Dildar Ahmad, Rukhsana Raz, Yasmeen Khalid and Gorsaran Lal. The party also sent their resignations to the assembly speaker. The four MPAs have challenged the controversial resignation terming it bogus and an act of forgery.

As both the women MPAs were elected on seats reserved for women, which had been filled through proportional representation of seats in the assembly after the 2002 polls, the CEC notified the names of Fouzia Naz and Saira Bano after receiving the notification regarding their resignation by the assembly’s secretary.