PESHAWAR, April 3: Two women MPAs of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) took oath on Monday at an assembly session hastily called by the speaker amid a row between the NWFP governor and the ruling alliance.

Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan summoned the session within two hours of receiving a requisition signed by 40 members of the ruling MMA.

On Sunday, Governor Khalilur-Rehman had returned the summary for summoning the session on Monday and raised certain technical points in the agenda.

The speaker administered the oath to the two lawmakers, Fouzia Naz and Saira Bano.

The two women were notified as MPAs by the chief election commissioner (CEC) on March 31, 2006, on seats reserved for women. The CEC took the step after receiving notifications issued by the assembly’s secretary regarding controversial resignations of four MPAs, Ms Rukhsana Raz, Ms Yasmeen Khalid, Gorsaran Lal and Maulana Dildar Ahmad.

All the four members have challenged their controversial resignations and their writ petitions will be taken up for hearing by the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday.

Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani and other members of the treasury benches were present in the house, whereas the PML side was absent. After taking the oath, the speaker adjourned the session till Tuesday.

Later, talking to newsmen, Mr Durrani reiterated that Governor Khalil-ur-Rehman was under pressure. “The governor was deliberately trying to delay the session as under the constitution, he is bound to act on the chief minister advice,” he said.

The chief minister had said he was proceeding to Islamabad on Monday afternoon to apprise the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz of the entire situation.

Mr Durrani said the governor was influencing the judiciary by delaying the session. He urged the CEC to notify the name of Kishwer Kumar as MPA on the vacant seat reserved for minorities as he had been nominated by the JUI-F in accordance with law.

The two seats had fallen vacant after Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) expelled MPAs Rukhsana Raz, Yasmeen Khalid and two other lawmakers, including a minority member, for not casting vote in favour of the party candidates in the Senate elections. The ousted lawmakers denied that they had handed over their resignations voluntarily to the party.