PESHAWAR: Newly elected members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies will be sworn in on Wednesday (Feb 28), as the governors of both provinces have requisitioned assembly sessions.
KP Governor Ghulam Ali has summoned the session following advice from the KP caretaker chief minister, Syed Arshad Hussain Shah. On Friday, the provincial law department requested Mr Shah to advise the governor to convene the provincial assembly meeting.
“The chief minister is requested to advise the governor to summon the provincial assembly on a date to be mentioned in the draft order regarding summoning of the provincial assembly,” read an official summary sent by the law department to the caretaker chief minister.
On Saturday, the governor signed the summary and summoned the KP Assembly meeting.
ECP allocates reserved seats for women in KP Assembly, SIC matter remains pending
“In exercise of the power conferred by clause (a) of Article 109 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, I, Haji Ghulam Ali, Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, hereby summon the provincial assembly to meet on Feb 28, 2024, at 11am, in the Assembly building of the Provincial Assembly of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khyber Road, for taking the oath of its members, election and oath of the speaker and deputy speaker, and for the election of the chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” the order read.
The KP Assembly will hold its meeting after more than 13 months, as it last convened on Jan 9, 2023. On Jan 18, the assembly was dissolved following advice from the then KP chief minister, Mehmood Khan, on Jan 17.
Mr Ali has signed the summary for the dissolution of the KP Assembly, and a gazette notification on the dissolution was also issued on the same day.
“Consequent upon the acceptance of the advice of the Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [Mahmood Khan], rendered to the Governor of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [Haji Ghulam Ali] under Clause (1) of Article 112 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Provincial Assembly of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stands dissolved,” the gazette notification said.
The elected candidates set to be sworn into the 115-member KP Assembly include 87 PTI-backed independent candidates — who have joined the Sunni Ittihad Council (SIC) — seven members from JUI-F, six from PML-N, four from PPP, one each from the Awami National Party and PTI-Parliamentarians, besides three independent candidates.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan published the names of the returned candidates for the seats reserved for women in the KP Assembly, including two JUI-F members, two from PML-N and one from PPP.
The ECP did not publish names for the reserved seats for the Sunni Ittehad Council as the matter is pending before the ECP.
Balochistan Assembly
Balochistan Governor Malik Abdul Wali Khan Kakar has summoned the provincial assembly session on Feb 28 at 3pm.
According to an official notification issued on Saturday, all MPAs-select will take the oath in the assembly’s first session after the recent elections.
Balochistan Assembly Speaker Mir Jan Muhammad Khan Jamali will preside over the session and administer the oath to the newly elected members.
The assembly officials said the session’s agenda would be released in a couple of days after deciding the election date of the new speaker, deputy speaker, and leader of the house.
Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2024
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