PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday directed the speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly to respond to the petitions for the administration of oaths to the opposition members elected to the seats reserved for women and non-Muslims in the house before the upcoming Senate elections.

Speaker Babar Saleem Swati was given a day’s time by a bench consisting of Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah and Justice Syed Arshad Ali to file comments on the three petitions of those 20 lawmakers-elect.

The court will hear the case again today (Wednesday).

The petitioners, including Shazia Tehmas, Aiman Jalail, Mehr Sultana, Farah Khan, Suresh Kumar, Behari Lal, and other MPAs belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarians, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, requested the court to declare illegal and unconstitutional the failure of the speaker and deputy speaker to call the assembly’s sitting to administer oaths to them.

Opposition MPAs elected on reserved seats want Senate polls in province put off until disposal of case

They sought the court’s orders for the speaker and deputy speaker to ensure their early swearing-in to enable them to cast votes in the April 2 Senate polls.

Some petitioners sought a stay order as interim relief against the holding of the Senate polls in the province until the disposal of their case.

Lawyers Aamir Javed, Tariq Khan Afridi, Farooq Afridi, and others appeared for the petitioners, while advocate Ali Azim Afridi represented the speaker and Sikandar Bashir Momand the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Provincial advocate general Shah Faisal Uthmankhel and additional attorney general Sanaullah Khan appeared for the provincial and federal governments, respectively.

The bench asked Mr Momand what role the ECP could play regarding the oath-taking of the petitioners, as it had issued a notification declaring them returned candidates on the seats reserved for women and non-Muslims in the assembly.

Mr Momand said the ECP had fulfilled all its constitutional and legal responsibilities by notifying the petitioners as MPAs-elect.

He said the ECP’s March 4 notification was challenged by the Sunni Ittehad Council before the high court.

The lawyer, however, said a five-member, larger bench had rejected that plea, declaring the election of petitioners in line with the Constitution and law.

The bench asked him about the way out when no one in the assembly was willing to administer oaths to the petitioners.

Mr Momand insisted that in the event of the speaker’s reluctance, the high court could direct the governor to administer oaths to the lawmakers-elect.

He said the Lahore High Court, in a case, issued directives to the country’s president to nominate a person to administer an oath to Hamza Shehbaz, so the National Assembly speaker did the job.

The lawyer argued that administering oaths to lawmakers-elect was the constitutional obligation of the speaker, and the court could intervene in the event of his reluctance.

Advocate general Uthmankhel said he had filed comments about the petitions on behalf of the provincial government, but they’d so far not been placed on record.

Lawyer Aamir Javed contended that the early swearing-in of petitioners should be ensured to enable them to cast votes in the Senate polls scheduled for April 2.

He said the governor had called the provincial assembly’s session for March 22, but the assembly’s secretariat declined to hold the sitting.

The counsel contended that the denial of oath-taking to the petitioners was an unconstitutional and illegal act on the part of the speaker and deputy speaker of the assembly.

The petitioners said the speaker and deputy speaker deviated from their constitutional obligations “due to political rivalry” by refusing to administer oaths to them.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2024