PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to move the Supreme Court to challenge the decision of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) regarding the swearing-in of KP assembly legislators elected to reserved seats.
“We will challenge the Peshawar High Court verdict in the Supreme Court,” KP Law Minister Aftab Alam said in a statement, adding that senior lawyers Salman Akram Raja, Hamid Khan and Faisal Siddiqui were included in the legal panel.
Alam said a “writ petition” has been prepared and will be filed after two days.
He clarified that the oath of the Members of the Provincial Assembly (MPA) elected to the seats reserved for minorities and women will not be administered until the Supreme Court’s verdict on the matter.
Subsequently, the regional government will discuss the expected postponement of the senate elections at today’s government meeting.
The provincial law minister said the government could also go to court over the expected delay in the Upper House poll, but the cabinet would make the final decision.
Alam pointed to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which merged with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) after February’s national polls, calling it an “injustice” to ignore the political party with the highest number of seats while allocating reserved seats.
He alleged that there was injustice with the party founded by Imran in the matter of reserved seats as well as unfair steps to deprive PTI of its electoral symbol.
Yesterday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) signaled the postponement of the Senate elections – scheduled for April 2 – in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amid an ongoing issue over the swearing-in of lawmakers for reserved seats in the province.
The Chief Electoral Commissioner (CEC) issued a seven-page verdict on the request to issue an order to pledge the legislators and suspend the Senate vote until the pledges are made within the province of KP.
“Therefore, in the event of non-compliance with the instructions and order issued pursuant to Article 218 paragraph 3 read with Section 4 paragraph 1 and Section 8 letter c) of the Act, apart from any other measure, the Commission may extend the deadline for the completion of the Senate elections within the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa until the swearing in of the members of the provincial assembly against including the complainants,” the verdict read.
There was a standoff between the KP government and the opposition parties, with the former objecting to the KP governor’s decision to convene a council meeting at the request of the opposition, delaying the swearing-in of MPAs in reserved seats.
