PESHAWAR: The provincial assembly reserved seat vacated following the killing of PTI MPA Soran Singh became a point of contention between the House and the Peshawar High Court on Friday.
As both treasury and opposition benches continued their opposition to attempts of PA speaker Asad Qaiser at administering an oath of office to Baldev Kumar for the vacant seat, the Peshawar High Court issued a contempt of notice to Qaiser for not complying with the court directives, and observed that the court would issue a stay order against Senate elections in the province if the assembly failed to proceed with the oath of Kumar, who is incidentally imprisoned on charges of Soran Singh’s murder.
As the court hearing started on Friday,
Kumar’s counsel Muhib Jan Salarzai argued that he was not allowed inside the assembly [on Friday] despite court directive. He said his client was on the priority list of minority members of PTI handed to the ECP for reserved seats, and with the vacancy arising following Singh’s death, Kumar must have been administered oath of an MPA by now.
Justice Ikram Ullah Khan then issued the contempt notice and warned that he would not let the assembly proceed with Senate elections [happening today] if Kumar was not inducted as an MPA on the reserved seat.
Earlier in the day when the PA met, the speaker issued production orders of Baldev Kumar and added his oath taking ceremony to the house agenda as an additional item.
The speaker summoned Kumar thrice to stand up for the oath, however, Kumar did not turn up as he was not brought to the Assembly in time.
Then, lawmakers from both treasury and opposition benches started protesting, saying that they would not let the speaker to take oath from a suspected murderer.
In a rare display of unity, PTI’s Mehmood Jan and PML-N’s parliamentary leader Sardar Aurangzeb Nalota said they would boycott the session if Baldev was brought for the oath.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has already issued a notification for the vacant seat.
Published in Daily Times, March 3rd 2018.
