Peshawar:
The Superior Court of Peshawar (PHC) annulled on Thursday the order of stay in the sworn of incoming legislators in the seats reserved for women and minorities in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly (KP) and directed the Pakistan Electoral Commission (ECP) to decide the distribution of seats in 10 days.
A bank of two members, which is included in Syed Arshad Ali and Judge Dr. Khurshid Iqbal, listened to the requests presented by the Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf parliamentary (PTI-P) and the National Awami (ANP) Party, challenging the distribution of the ECP seats.
At the audience, Sultan Muhammad Khan represented the PTI-P, while Babar Khan Yousafzai appeared in the Court on behalf of the ANP. They had argued that the ECP had assigned one seat each, while deserved more seats according to their strength in the house.
On Tuesday, the PHC had maintained the oath of legislators nominated for reserved seats in the KP assembly in the request presented by the president of PTI-P. The petitioner had challenged the notification of the ECP of March 4, 2024.
He argued that, according to the party’s success relationship, PTI-P was entitled to three seats reserved for women and one for minorities, but only one seat was assigned. The court issued the suspension order and issued notice and requested a response from the ECP.
During Thursday’s hearing, the special secretary of the ECP, Muhammad Arshad, informed the court that the PTI-P had requested the ECP, but its application was rejected. Later, added the special secretary of the ECP, the PTI-P moved the Superior Court of Islamabad (IHC), where his request was still pending.
Responding to a court consultation on moving the two higher courts, the PTI-P lawyer, Sultan Muhammad Khan, declared that he was representing the petitioner in the PHC and did not know about any litigation in the IHC. Later, PTI-P lawyer withdrew his request.
Yusufzai, the ANP lawyer, declared that his request was also pending in the PHC. The special secretary of the ECP replied that the ANP case was different from that of the PTI-P, since one of its candidates won in the partial elections, which did not affect the allocation of the reserved seats.
The bank lifted its stay order after the withdrawal of the request from the PTI-P, while senting the request of the ANP with respect to the distribution of seats reserved to the ECP. The Court ordered the ECP to hear the ANP request and make a decision within 10 days.
