PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday disposed of a petition seeking disqualification of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and provincial Assembly’s Speaker Asad Qaisar after the petitioner announced its withdrawal.

Appearing before Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan, petitioner Ayaz Khan, who is also the secretary general of PHC Bar Association, said he wanted to withdraw the petition as the situation was altogether different from the time when he filed it.

He said when he moved the court, the PTI had staged a sit-in in Islamabad and announced a civil disobedience movement but later the Imran Khan-led party called off the protest.

The petition was filed last year by the lawyer on the ground that Pervez Khattak and Asad Qaisar had joined the civil disobedience movement launched by their party, the PTI, so they violated their oaths of office taken under the Constitution.

The respondents in the petition were the chief minister, provincial Assembly’s speaker and the provincial government through the chief secretary.

Petitioner insists situation changed altogether after PTI ended sit-in

On behalf of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, the chief secretary had denied the charge of the petitioner saying both the respondents didn’t issue any order to the government for civil disobedience.

In a response filed with the court about the case, he had said it was incorrect that the chief minister and assembly speaker used the resources of the provincial government and public money in the PTI sit-in.

He said the chief minister and the speaker had strictly been exercising their powers and functions in accordance with the Constitution and law.

The chief secretary had said he had not received any orders from the chief minister and the speaker that the provincial government should start the civil disobedience movement.

The petitioner had said the PTI chairman announced the start of the civil disobedience movement across the country and the next day the chief minister endorsed that statement.

He had said the chief minister headed a federating unit and therefore, he had to abide by the Constitution.

The petitioner had said the chief minister and speaker not only participated in the sit-in but advocated the notion of civil disobedience as well.

He added that as if that was not enough, the members of PTI and its leadership, including the chief minister and assembly speaker, illegally took over and attacked Parliament House and PTV centre in Islamabad by use of sheer force and violence.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2015

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