PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to summon the much awaited session of provincial assembly on May 10, following the Supreme Court judgement related to opposition MPAs elected on reserved seats.

On Monday, Supreme Court suspended the March 14’s judgement of Peshawar High Court (PHC) as well as the March 1’s decision of Election Commission of Pakistan to deprive Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) of seats reserved for women and minorities.

Headed by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, a three-member SC bench, however, explained that the Monday’s interim order related to the disputed seats only, i.e. the reserved seats allocated over and above the initially allocated reserved seats to political parties. The bench also clarified that the order was to operate prospectively with effect from Monday.

Prior to the apex court order, the provincial government was reluctant to convene the assembly session as the speaker was bound to administer oath to opposition MPAs elected on reserved seats in accordance with the judgement of Peshawar High Court.

Decision taken after SC’s judgement on reserved seats

Provincial Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Aftab Alam Afridi confirmed to Dawn that government decided to hold the assembly session on coming Friday (May 10). He added that the upcoming assembly session would be ‘budget session’ aiming to pass budget for the current financial year 2023-24.

He said that law department moved a summary to chief minister regarding summoning of assembly. He said that governor would officially summon the assembly after the approval of the summary by the chief minister.

The minister said that assembly would pass the budget utilised by the previous caretaker government and that to be spent by the incumbent government till June 30.

Sources in the assembly secretariat told Dawn that government instructed them to prepare schedule for the approval of current budget and supplementary budget from the assembly.

It is pertinent to mention here that Peshawar High Court on March 27 accepted pleas of around 20 opposition MPAs-elected on reserved seats for women and non-Muslims and directed the chief minister and cabinet to convene the session of provincial assembly within a fortnight for administering oath to them.

PHC also ordered the speaker of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly to administer oath to the said MPAs-elect in the session to be requisitioned in accordance with the court’s order. However, so far the said session had not been convened as the speaker was bound to administer oath to the said MPAs-elect.

Moreover, the opposition PML-N has already challenged the authorisation of expenditure by the provincial government for the month of April, requesting the high court to declare the move illegal and unconstitutional.

The provincial cabinet on April 5 took decision regarding the authorisation of essential expenditure of the provincial government for that month.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2024