Free doughnuts?If politics is the name of serving masses on one hand and enjoying perks and privileges for being in the government or opposition on the other, then Maulana Fazlur Rehman is one of the best politicians and his Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) is a leading political party in the country.
In the previous government the JUI-F, a major component party of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, ruled the Frontier for five years, while in Balochistan the party was in coalition with Pakistan Muslim League-Q.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman was enjoying incentives equal to a federal minister as opposition leader in the National Assembly. In the present set-up, the JUI-F is a ruling partner with Pakistan People's Party at the centre and in Balochistan, while in the NWFP Assembly it is in the opposition and his close aide and former NWFP chief minister Muhammad Akram Khan is leader of the opposition, drawing salary and allowances equal to a provincial minister.
The NWFP Assembly was told that the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal government recruited 2,675 untrained teachers without test and interview in Dera Ismail Khan, the native district of Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Likewise, the previous provincial government had allotted about 470 acres of cultivatable land, belonging to the NWFP Agriculture Department, to its blue-eyed persons in the district. Pakistan People's Party-Sherpao MPA Israrullah Gandapur raised the issue on the floor, who claimed that some 1,567 male and 1,108 female teachers had been recruited in government schools in Dera Ismail Khan district during the last five years. He was demanding probe into the mater through a House committee as the authorities had not conducted test and interview for appointment of teachers in primary and middle schools.
However, the matter was kept pending when a PPP MPA asked the chair to distribute copies of the documents to the whole House. In the second case, provincial minister for Agriculture Arbab Ayub Jan endorsed the claim of MPAs from DI Khan regarding the illegal allotment of official land to a few persons on lease and said that he had ordered an inquiry into the matter.
He said the former MMA government had leased out on lease about 500 acres of land, belonging to the Agriculture Department, in DI Khan, Kohat and Hangu. "The cabinet had neither approved allotment of the precious land nor any legislation was made to allot the land on lease on throwaway prices," the minister told the House.
The PML-Q MPA from DI Khan said the agriculture department was used to cultivate best kind of wheat and rice seeds in order to further distribute it amongst the local farmers. "Now the lessees were earning million of rupees by producing good quality of wheat and rice crops on the land," he added.