Mufti Kifayatullah of JUI-F was first who took the floor and raised objections on Clauses, 3, 4 and 6 of the bill, but Noor Sahar, the woman legislator of PPP questioned the very Islamic legality of the legislation. She said that it was astonishing that none out of the total 124 members in provincial assembly except Saqibullah Khan Chamkani and her had read the bill.
Senior Minister Bashir Bilour and Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussein suggested the members should raise the issue in the committee instead of debating its clauses on the floor of the house. The Speaker also referred the verbal motion of Alamzeb Khan of ANP regarding alleged irregularities in admissions in Government College Peshawar to Standing Committee on Higher Education of the house and directed it to convene a meeting within a period of one week to probe the violation of merit in admissions.
The chair also referred the call attention notice of Israr Khan Gandapur regarding the teachers' appointment in D. I. Khan to the committee concerned of the house. The mover suggested finding out suitable solution to the problems as the teachers were also fed up with the existing complications.
Fazal Shakoor Khan of ANP did not press his privilege motion after getting assurance from the Law Minister, Arshad Abdullah, to direct the District Co-ordination Officer (DCO) Charsadda to stop the ongoing activities on the land of paper mills for housing scheme. Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly also adopted two resolutions unanimously demanding of the federal government for keeping Lowari Tunnel open for vehicular traffic for five-hour a day during winter season and charging domestic consumers' gas price from mosques and religious seminaries in the province.
The joint resolution on the issue of Lowari Tunnel was moved by Provincial Minister for Population Welfare, Saleem Khan and Anwar Khan of PPP, which was also carrying the signatures of the parliamentary leaders of PPP, Abdul Akbar Khan and ANP's Bashir Ahmad Bilour.
In the resolution, both members said that due to heavy snow fall Lowari Top and Lowari Pass road has been closed for vehicular traffic and hundreds of people were stranded on both sides of the tunnel. They said that the tunnel was being kept open for only three-hours and that also for only three days a week.
Through the resolution they demanded of the provincial government to take up the matter with federal government for directing National Highway Authority (NHA) for keeping the tunnel open for five hours a day (5/7) till the end of the winter season and reopening of Lowari Pass for traffic to minimize the problems of the people of landlocked district Chitral.
Earlier, the movers pleaded the chair to suspend the rules of procedure to allow presentation of the resolution. The chair put the resolution to verbal vote and the whole house replied with unanimous 'Yes' to pass the resolution. The second resolution regarding charging domestic gas price from mosques and religious seminaries in the province was moved by Mufti Kifayatullah of JUI-F, which was also supported by the parliamentary leaders of PPP and ANP. In this resolution, Mufti Kifayatullah said that in the past Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) used to charge mosques and religious teaching institutions domestic tariff, but now they are being charged commercial tariff.
He said that like other parts of the country, the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were also suffering due to this policy of OGRA. Therefore, he said the provincial assembly should recommend to the federal government to direct OGRA for charging domestic consumers price from mosques and seminaries for gas. Later, the Speaker adjourned the house till Monday.