PESHAWAR: Opposition parties in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly submitted a requisition on Monday to call a session to discuss the assassination of law minister Israrullah Khan Gandapur.
Awami National Party (ANP) parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Nighat Orakzai and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPA Arbab Akbar Hayat submitted the requisition at the Assembly Secretariat, signed by at least 32 opposition lawmakers.
Minister for Law, Justice, Human Rights and Parliamentary Affairs Israrullah Khan Gandapur was killed in a suicide attack on Eidul Azha on October 16, which also claimed nine other lives.
Arbab Akbar Hayat told The Express Tribune the requisition has been submitted with a one-point agenda: to pay homage to the late law minister and to convey a message to militants that such acts cannot dampen the K-P Assembly members’ spirits.
“Gandapur’s death was a tragedy for the government and people of this province,” said Hayat. “Ideally, the government itself should have called an assembly session to condole the attack and loss of life.”
Hayat regretted the display of apathy by the treasury benches which had forced the opposition to request a special session. “It is the duty of lawmakers from both treasury and opposition benches to remember their fallen colleagues.”
The speaker of assembly is bound to call a session of the house within 14 days of a requisition’s submission. This is the second session the opposition has called within the last 30 days. The previous one was called after twin blasts at All Saints Church on September 22 killed over 80 people.
Under the ANP-PPP government, not a single assembly session was called through a member’s requisition; all were called by the government. With those parties now in the opposition, the benches have broken their silence after a gap of five years.
The last government to have had a session called through a requisition was led by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and took place in October 2007.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 22nd, 2013.
