Skip to main content

Coordinator to PM demands reversal of KP law expanding MPAs' privileges

Prime Minister’s Coordinator for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Affairs Ikhtiar Wali Khan on Wednesday demanded the reversal of laws enacted by KP that expand MPAs’ powers and immunities.

The KP Assembly passed three acts on April 30, which pertained to immunities and privileges of MPAs, the speaker and the deputy speaker, as well as salaries and allowances of lawmakers.

Although KP Gov­ernor Faisal Karim Kundi assen­ted to the laws on May 6, the legislation has remained under wraps. The Acts and the gazette notifications have yet to be uploaded to the KP Assembly website.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Wednesday, Khan said, “No law of this country applies to them. They can fire at anyone or hit anyone, but they are not answerable to anyone.”

Under Section 10 of the legislation, provincial assembly members have been granted blanket immunity from preventive detention. Under Section 11, authorities will now have to seek the speaker’s prior permission before arresting a member on a criminal offence.

“Under the umbrella of freedom of expression, [an MPA] can do anything and the speaker will be the custodian and he will be the only person to give permission to arrest a member of the assembly,” Khan said, contending that it was unlikely that the PTI speaker would allow so in any case.

Under Section 14, which deals with additional privileges, MPAs will be entitled to licences for eight non-prohibited bore weapons, including four free licences and four issued on payment of a notified fee.

Under the repealed law, they were entitled to four free lifetime licences for weapons.

Khan questioned those changes in his press briefing: “If someone has the licence to own eight Kalashnikovs, what will he do?”

The prime minister’s coordinator called for deweaponisation across Pakistan, adding that the responsibility for security should rest with the government, the armed forces and police.

The new laws also permit lifetime official passports for assembly members and their spouses.

Khan said, “Blue passport for life means that these people will leave on their passport and surrender it, and then get political asylum. […] They want to insult Pakistan globally.”

He further criticised the jab at press freedom in the recently enacted laws, which he said allowed the speaker and the KP government to bar specific journalists and publications from covering assembly sessions.

The KP Assembly pass­ed the KP Provincial Assembly (Powers, Immu­nities and Privileges) Act 2026 on April 30.

On the same day, it also passed two other laws: the KP Province Speaker and Deputy Speaker (Powers, Immunities and Privil­eges) Act 2026, and the KP Province (Salaries and Allowances of Mem­bers) Act 2026.

A statement issued by the office of KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati had denied that any new or extraordinary privileges have been introduced for lawmakers.

It explained that nearly 99pc of the powers and facilities being discussed already existed in the 1988 law, with recent amendments further clarifying those.



from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/girwUcz
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ministers rubbish notion that proposed retirement age extension to favour ‘one particular institution’

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday rubbished the notion that a proposed extension in the retirement age was to favour “one particular institution”, adding that the move would be implemented across the board if approved. The rebuttal comes in the wake of media reports claiming that the government was mulling changes to the Constitution to fix the tenure of the chief justice . Currently, judges of the Supreme Court, including the chief justice, retire after attaining the age of superannuation, i.e. 65 years, as stipulated in Article 179 of the Constitution. While giving his opinion recently on the reports of the constitutional amendment, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar had said he “will not vehemently turn down the proposals related to the tenure of the chief justice”. Addressing the issue during a press conference in Islamabad today along since Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and the law minister, Attaullah said the extension in the retirement age was “a proposal to a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Explainer: Iran’s economy faces rocky road amid rising prices, falling currency

Iran’s economy is going through one of its most difficult periods in years, fueled by sanctions, high inflation, and a significant drop in the value of the national currency, the rial. These pressures have had a direct impact on living standards and have also fueled recent protests. The protests began on Dec. 28 in commercial hubs in the capital Tehran, when shopkeepers, merchants, and small business owners staged strikes and demonstrations to protest soaring inflation, the collapsing rial, and deteriorating economic conditions, and have since grown into nationwide anti-government expressions of discontent involving workers, students, and others across multiple cities. The Iranian president said Sunday that his government is determined to address Iran’s economic problems amid the protests. Masoud Pezeshkian said the government admits to “shortcomings and problems” and is working hard to alleviate the people’s concerns, especially on the economy. Currency collapse at the centre of c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mitchell Starc surpasses Wasim Akram as most prolific left-arm pacer in Test history

Australian veteran Mitchell Starc became the most prolific left-arm paceman in Test history on Thursday, surpassing Pakistan great Wasim Akram. The 35-year-old bagged England’s Harry Brook at the Gabba in Brisbane on day one of the day-night second Ashes Test for his 415th wicket since his debut at the same ground 14 years ago. It moved him past Wasim, widely recognised as the greatest left-arm bowler the sport has seen. Wasim played 104 Tests for his 414 wickets with Starc reaching the milestone in his 102nd, helped by a career-best 7-58 in the first innings of the opening Ashes Test at Perth. Starc is now 16th on the all-time wicket-taker list and could move above both India’s Harbhajan Singh (417) and South Africa’s Shaun Pollock (421) in the current pink-ball Test. After that he will have New Zealand’s Richard Hadlee (431) in his sights. from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/xclHiX2
Post a Comment
Read more