PTI MPA hurls shoe, lawmakers verbally abuse Baldev Kumar in K-P assembly

F.P. Report

PESHAWAR: A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA hurled shoe while other lawmakers in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) assembly verbally abused Baldev Kumar, protesting his presence in the house.

PTI lawmaker Arbab Jahandad threw a shoe at Kumar, who is accused in the murder of Sardar Suran Singh— a slain lawmaker of the PTI on minority seat.

In a sign of protest, lawmakers boycotted the sitting to break the quorum, so Kumar could not become a member of the house.

As lawmakers left the house to break quorum, Jahandad committed the act when Kumar was waiting to take his oath on the treasury benches. Other members threw copies of the agenda at Kumar, which sparked an uproar in the house.

Security officials rushed to Kumar and took him to the gallery in order to control the situation.

K-P Minister for Higher Education Mushtaq Ghani started shouting, asking the security to remove Kumar from the lawmakers’ gallery.

“We will not let him in our gallery,” Ghani shouted. Kumar was brought into the assembly hand-cuffed.

On Saturday, the son of slain PTI leader Sardar Soran Singh had expressed dismay on the order passed by Speaker Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Asad Qaiser for the production of Baldev Kumar.

Ajay Singh posted a video on social media, questioning K-P Assembly’s February 23 decision to summon Kumar for oath-taking ceremony as member of the provincial assembly on a minority seat.

Pointing out that Singh was a worker of PTI, Ajay further alleged that K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and the K-P assembly speaker had made a deal with Kumar for a vote in the upcoming Senate elections.

He said that Kumar should not be allowed to take oath as MPA since he was currently under trial in an anti-terrorism court for Singh’s murder.