AJK Amendment Act 2018 presented in legislative assembly

MUZAFFARABAD: (Parliament Times) The AJK legislative assembly session was held here on Tuesday with Deputy Speaker Sardar Farooq Ahmed Tahir in the hair.
The house constituted a panel of Chairman consisting of MLA Dr. Mustafa Bashir, Raja Muhammad Siddique Khan and Malik Muhammad Nawaz. “Azad Jammu and Kashmir Amendment Act 2018 was presented in the house. It was decided to form a parliamentary committee for “Azad Jammu and Kashmir Local Government Amendment Act 2018 before presenting it in the house.
Finance statements for 2016-17, Performance Audit Reports 2014-15 and 2016-17, Audit Reports Accounts development and local bodies and other departments for 2015-16 were also presented in the house.
The AJK Senior Minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq while replying to a point of order of leader of opposition Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin said that funds to members legislative assembly are given on the principle of equilibrium. He said PML-N AJK ensured that equal funds are distributed to all the constituencies of the State. He said judicious use of funding was also ensured for road infrastructure in AJK. The past governments committed unequal distribution of funds to the constituencies but present government exercised great care and always took the opposition into confidence in this regard, he added. He said “our policy is that government and opposition has equal part to address the grievances of the masses. Opposition he said should take full benefit from it as after 13th constitutional amendment it is imperative for the legislative assembly to meet once in a month. Farooq claimed that present government upheld supremacy of merit for which PSC was restructured. First time NTS was introduced for regular appointments in education and other departments of the state. He refuted the false claims of opposition and said government would sit together with the opposition to dispose of certain matters after the assembly session.
Replying to a call attention notice of MLA Ahmed Raza Qadri regarding official timings, Farooq said that in line with federal government decision, office timings were also changed to 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in AJK to ensure smoothing working in the Secretariat. He said the decision was taken to keep a liaison with federal government on official working. He however assured that the suggestion of the MLA on this issue would be reviewed in the next cabinet meeting. The Senior Minister said that suggestions would be sought from all the assembly members for timely reply of the questions in the house.
Meanwhile MLA Pir Syed Ali Raza Bukhari pointed out to the house that upgradation of Qazis have not been carried out since long. He sought explanation on it of Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs and said that from 1975 to 1996 the grades of Qazis and Judges were equal. However, he said grades of Qazis have not been upgraded for a long timre. He wanted to know what action government had taken on it. The Minister for law sought a day to answer this question.
The House was adjourned to meet again tomorrow morning.