PESHAWAR, Oct 17: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday reserved its judgment on two applications seeking suspension of the senators of Pakistan Muslim League and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal who were elected from the NWFP.

Petitioner Shahid Orakzai filed the applications along with a writ petition. He said the MMA and PML had fielded more candidates than allowed in accordance with proportion of the number of their MPAs.

The petitioner has requested the court to restrain these senators from performing their duties till the disposal of the petition. He has made MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad and PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain respondents in the petition, saying they both had promoted horse trading in the province.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan and Justice Tallat Qayyum Qureshi asked the petitioner what was his locus standi to file the petition.

Mr Orakzai said he was a citizen of Pakistan and under Article 5 of the Constitution obedience to the constitution and law was the obligation of every citizen.

He alleged that one of the senators, Talha Mehmood, had paid Rs150 million to the MMA leadership for acquiring the ticket of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F).

He questioned how could the PML, with its 10 members in the NWFP Assembly, had filed four candidates. With this strength, he said, the party could not win a single seat. However, he pointed out, three of the PML candidates won the Senate polls held on March 6 which he said proved that they had indulged in horse trading.

Similarly, the petitioner said, the MMA leader had violated the Political Parties Order, 2002, by issuing 10 tickets for a total of seven general seats.

The court was asked to call for the party record to verify as to when Senator Talha Mehmood was formally enrolled as a member. It was also requested to inquire whether he had ever contested any intra-party or a general election and on what grounds had he been preferred over other candidates.