Peshawar:
On Tuesday, the Superior Court of Peshawar (PHC) remained the oath of legislators nominated for seats reserved for women and minorities in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly (KP), after a request presented by Pakistan Tehreek-E-Ninsaf Parliatian (PTI-P).
The president of PTI-P, Mehmood Khan, challenged the notification of March 4, 2024 issued by the Pakistan Electoral Commission (ECP). 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.
A two-member PHC bank, comprised of Judge Syed Arshad Ali and Judge Dr. Khurshid Iqbal, heard the request presented through the PTI-P Sultan Muhammad Khan lawyer. The court issued notices and sought ECP responses.
The petition declared that Arbab Waseem and Iqbal Wazir were chosen members of the Provincial Assembly in PTI-P tickets. In addition, he added that all PTI candidates had played the elections as independent and then joined the Sunita Ittehad (sic) council.
Due to the limited representation of PTI in the Assembly, the reserved seats were distributed among other parliamentary parts. Consequently, only one seat was assigned to PTI-P, although the party said that it was entitled to three seats reserved for women and one for minorities based on their relationship.
During the hearing, Judge Ali commented that the petitioner must approach the ECP instead of the court. The lawyer argued that the oath taking of incoming legislators would be administered once the assembly session began, which could make the request ineffective.
He asked the court to delay the oath until the petition was decided. After listening to the initial arguments, the court ordered a stay in the oath of the reserved seats and requested an ECP response.
Separately, the National Awami (ANP) party had also presented a petition against ECP. The lawyer Babar Yousafzai argued that ANP initially assigned a reserved seat, but after the victory of Nisar Baz in the partial elections, the party now has two general seats in the Provincial Assembly.
He requested that the ECP review the allocation of seats reserved to reflect the updated strength of the ANP and grant to the part the corresponding reserved seats accordingly.
