PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s Secretariat has said that it hasn’t received any government orders to call a sitting of the house for the swearing-in of the lawmakers elected to the seats reserved for women and non-Muslims.

The Peshawar High Court had ordered Speaker of the provincial assembly Babar Saleem Swati to administer oaths to those MPAs on April 2, according to a statement issued by the office of the press secretary to the speaker.

It added that soon after receiving the court’s orders, the speaker asked the secretariat about the April 2 session but was informed that the government had yet not issued any directions to call that sitting.

The secretariat quoted the speaker as directing its legal adviser to immediately update the high court about the matter.

Speaker asks legal adviser to update PHC on matter

“We believe in the supremacy of the law. We are committed to our struggle for the supremacy of the Constitution and the law,” Mr Swati said in the statement.

The opposition and government in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province are at odds over the assembly session for the oath-taking of MPAs elected on reserved seats.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Ghulam Ali recently convened the assembly for the swearing-in of those lawmakers notified by the Election Commission of Pakistan on March 4.

However, the provincial government declared the move against the rules as well as the Constitution, and refused to implement it.

“The governor can request the speaker of the provincial assembly to call a session but cannot call a sitting on his own. It is the discretion of the speaker to call the assembly and prepare its agenda,” claimed adviser to the chief minister on information and public relations Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif in a statement.

The opposition members later demonstrated against the government, accusing it of trying to block the right of women and non-Muslim MPAs to participate in the Senate polls slated for next month.

“This is their [members elected to reserved seats] right to be sworn in. They [the ruling coalition] want to block these members’ oath-taking to claim four extra seats in the upcoming Senate polls,” insisted Leader of the Opposition in the KP Assembly Dr Ibadullah Khan.

He claimed that the provincial governor was empowered by Article 109 of the Constitution to call the assembly’s session.

“Our [the joint opposition’s] 45 members had requested the governor to convene the sitting,” he told reporters.

The KP Assembly has 30 reserved seats—26 for women and four for non-Muslims. The Sunni Ittehad Council, which has 90 PTI-backed members in the assembly, was denied its share of reserved seats by the ECP. Those seats went to other parties that have presence in the house, including the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarians, Awami National Party, and PTI-Parliamentarians.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2024