The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Saturday challenged a bill approved by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government regarding the use of government-owned helicopter in the Peshawar High Court (PHC). PML-N parliamentary leader in the KP Assembly Sardar Yousaf filed the petition and made the provincial government and chief secretary respondents. He argued that the amendment to the laws was made illegally. No one, including Imran Khan, would be allowed to use public money, he said, adding that the bill was approved as the PTI was in majority in the provincial assembly.

He argued that the provincial government had provided legal shelter to the use of provincial government-owned helicopter since 2008 through the bill. Mr Yousaf said it had also allowed renting out the helicopter for commercial use.

Last month, KP Governor Ghulam signed the bill despite having reservations on it. He also wrote a dissenting note, saying he was not satisfied with the bill. Mr Ali is of the view that the bill was approved by the PTI-led provincial government just to protect the past use of the helicopters by Imran Khan.

“Legislation to facilitate one person is unconstitutional,” he said, adding that anyone could challenge it in court. The governor said he had first returned the bill with objection but it was sent to him again as a finance bill. “It is not a finance bill and I have informed the KP Assembly speaker about it,” he said. The governor said he was bound by the Constitution to approve the bill.

In December last, the provincial assembly passed the KP Ministers (Salaries, Allowance and Privileges) (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022, amid resistance by the opposition parties which claimed that it would provide ‘blanket immunity’ to those who illegally used the provincial government’s helicopters. They raised objection to the Section 7B(7) of the amended bill, saying it would protect the illegal users of state-owned helicopters.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP