F.P. Report
PESHAWAR: A divisional bench of Peshawar High Court (PHC) comprising of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Waqar Ahmad on Monday has cliff pleas against High Court decision linking Senate of Pakistan Election to oath’s administration of reserved Members with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati review petition in this regard while adjourned hearing for today (on Tuesday).
The counsel Syed Sikandar Hayat Shah and Ali Zaman advocate appeared on behalf of former Senator Azam Swati while argued that PHC had ordered suspension of Senate of Pakistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa until oath taking of members nominated on Reserved seats.
Advocate Syed Sikandar Hayat Shah argued that Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly had filed review petition against PHC orders regarding linking Senate Elections with oath taking of reserved members.
PHC’s divisional bench comprised Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Waqar Ahmad cliff the plea with Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly review petition while adjourned further hearing for today. It is worthy to note that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati filed a review petition against the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) order wherein it directed him to administer oaths to opposition MPAs elected to reserved seats. The opposition and provincial government are at odds over the assembly session for the oath-taking of MPAs elected on reserved seats for women and minorities.
The opposition and provincial government are at odds over the assembly session for the oath-taking of MPAs elected on reserved seats for women and minorities. Last month, a controversy had emerged as KP Governor Haji Ghulam Ali had summoned the assembly session for March 22, but the provincial government declared the move against the rules as well as the Constitution, and refused to implement it.
The opposition members later demonstrated against the government, accusing it of trying to block the right of women and non-Muslim MPAs to participate in the Senate polls slated for next month. On March 25, more than a dozen candidates of the province’s opposition, who were notified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on reserved seats, urged the PHC to ensure they are administered the oaths before the Senate elections scheduled for April 2 (Tuesday). Among the petitioners were six women MPAs-elect of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and eight returned candidates of the PML-N and PPP.
On March 27, the PHC had ordered Swati to administer the oaths to the MPAs elected on reserved seats for women and non-Muslims, and facilitate them to cast votes in the Senate elections. A PHC division bench consisting of Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah and Justice Shakeel Ahmad accepted three almost identical petitions filed by around 20 opposition MPAs elected on reserved seats, and directed the speaker to include the matter as agenda item No. 1 of the first business day of the session requisitioned for the upcoming Senate elections.
The next day, the ECP had hinted at postponing Senate elections if the KP assembly speaker kept on delaying the oath-taking. On Saturday, the assembly secretariat said it had not received any government orders to call a sitting of the house for the swearing-in of the lawmakers.
