Speaker dissolves standing panels, orders reconstitution

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani on Monday dissolved all standing committees of the House and ordered to reconstitute them so that the newly elected members from merged districts could be accommodated.

In response to a motion moved by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Mohammad Shafiq Afridi, who was elected from Bara in Khyber district, the speaker pointed out that through a unanimous resolution the House had allowed him to constitute the standing committees.

“Now I am bound to reconstitute these committees to provide equal representation to the provincial assembly members elected from the tribal districts,” Speaker Mushtaq Ghani said. He added that the elected members from former tribal areas would be adjusted in the House committees.

The speaker said that after the induction of some ruling party MPAs into the cabinet as ministers, advisors and special assistants to the chief minister, they lost their membership of the House committees and would be replaced with new members. He added that some of the members had requested him to change their membership of certain assembly committees and this would be done once the committees are reconstituted. Mushtaq Ghani said that the committees would be reconstituted at the earliest.

The Khyber Pakhtun-khwa Assembly also referred a privilege motion of PTI MPA Sumaira Shams against the District Health Officer, Lower Dir for providing false information to the assembly’s Standing Committee.