NWFP MPA threatens seeking Taliban help against minister

[Naveed Yaseen]

by Khalid Kheshg
PESHAWAR: Following common peoples’ plea for help from militants against powerful elements in their respective areas, the NWFP lawmakers are also now threatening their colleagues in the assembly with a call for Taliban.

Many attending the Thursday’s session of the assembly were stunned when they heard a lawmaker warning a provincial minister of calling the Taliban, if he (minister) continued interfering in postings and transfers in his constituency.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid’s MPA Muhammad Zahir Shah from Shangla, bordering the restive Swat district, through a call attention notice once again accused the NWFP Minister for Schools and Literacy Sardar Hussain Babak of his alleged involvement in the ‘illegal’ postings and transfers of primary teachers and other officials of the education department in his constituency PF-87, Shangla.

“I don’t understand the claims of the ANP leaders for following the principles of Bacha Khan but they are torturing poor people of my constituency by frequent posting and transfers of primary teachers,” he said and added that if the education minister was taking revenge from him then the government should plainly put him in jail rather than punishing the teachers community.

“The ANP should terminate the basic membership of the concerned minister or take back ministry from him, otherwise I will submit an application against the provincial minister in the court of Swat-based Taliban,” said the aged Zahir Shah, who also requested the Chair to take his call attention notice seriously.

Not only the speaker NWFP Assembly, but the whole nation should take serious the request of an elected representative when he is feeling no hesitation, that too on the floor of the assembly, to seek help of outlaws and militants against a provincial minister on the same day when the House unanimously condemned life attempt on Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour by suicide bombers, killing five including four of a family in Peshawar on Wednesday.

One should not forget the claims of the defunct Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan for blowing up schools, making suicide attacks on government installations, security forces, parliamentarians and politicians, including the ANP leaders and ministers, in the recent past in Swat, Peshawar and Charsadda.

Even the firebrand cleric Maulana Fazlullah in Swat had summoned more than 45 politicians and lawmakers to his self-proclaimed Shariah courts in Swat for holding them responsible for deaths and destruction in the scenic Swat valley.

Former federal minister and provincial president of the PML-Q, Amir Muqam (MNA) was one among them, who belongs to Shangla district from where the PML-Q MPA is seeking Taliban’s assistance.

However, Muhammad Zahir Shah has justified his plea when he shared a list of more than 36 teachers and class-IV employees being transferred and appointed by direct involvement of the education minister. “Even I also approached the chief minister in this regard, but what to do when there is no forum against the alleged corruption of ministers and bureaucrats,” he added.

The ‘easy-load’ culture and SMS factor (abbreviated name of an advisor to chief minister) had already earned a bad name for the ANP-led government in the NWFP, particularly in posting and transfers of the government departments.

A harsh exchange of words between a PPP MPA and NWFP education minister took place in the last assembly session when Abdul Akbar Khan, parliamentary leader of the PPP, blamed some influential persons in the provincial government for taking huge amount in the appointment of dozens of youth in the Education Department in Mardan and announced that he had solid proofs in this regard.

Education Minister Sardar Babak had defied the PPP MPA in the same tune and asked him to prove his claim, otherwise he should resign from the assembly seat. NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti, who hails from Mardan, later on cancelled all the appointments in the district education department and ordered a probe into the matter.

Interestingly no one, either from the treasury or opposition benches, reminded the Speaker to expunge the PML-Q’s MPA remarks for seeking help from the Taliban, which would definitely became part of the assembly record.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=166894