Skip to main content

14 KP MPAs-elect challenge ‘denial of oath-taking’

PESHAWAR: More than a dozen candidates belonging to the main opposition parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who were notified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on reserved seats, have urged the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to ensure they are administered oath of office before the upcoming Senate elections.


Six women MPAs-elect of the JUI-F on Monday filed a writ petition asking the PHC to declare the non-administration of oath to them “illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional”, while eight returned candidates of the PML-N and PPP challenged the same in a joint petition.


As the PPP had also filed a similar petition last Friday, the PHC is expected to club all the petitions together at its hearing, scheduled for today (Tuesday).


The petitions have been filed after the KP Assembly Secretariat declined to hold the sitting, despite an order issued by the governor to convene a session on March 22.


On behalf of JUI-F MPAs-elect Aiman Jalil, Madina Gul, Rabia Shaheen, Neelofar Begum, Naheeda Noor and Arifa Bibi, Advocate Mohammad Farooq Afridi submitted the petition, impleading the KP Assembly speaker, the ECP and others as respondents. In addition, Advocate Afridi submitted the petition on behalf of Mehr Sultana and seven other petitioners belonging to the PPP and PML-N.


The JUI-F petitioners stated that the ECP, through a notification on March 4, declared them successful in the election on reserved seats for women in the KP Assembly. “By virtue of the March 4 notification, the petitioners have become MPAs of KP and have the right to be administered oath by the speaker and deputy speaker,” they said.


According to the petition, the assembly session is summoned either by the governor under Article 109 or by the speaker only on a requisition signed by no less than a quarter of the total strength of the house. Since they did not enjoy the required majority of one-fourth membership in the assembly to move a requisition, the petitioners said, they approached the opposition leader and KP governor to summon the session.


The petition stated that the governor under Article 109 exercised the discretionary powers and summoned the session on March 22 to administer the oath to the candidates declared successful by the ECP.


But the speaker and his deputy deviated from their constitutional obligations “due to political rivalry” and refused to administer the oath to them, it pointed out.


Senate elections


According to the petition, the MPAs-elect belonging to the JUI-F, PML-N and PPP, despite being declared victorious in the election, were being deprived of their fundamental right of oath, with an aim to keep them away in the Senate election scheduled for April 2.


The petitioners urged the court to direct the ECP to postpone the scheduled Senate election till the disposal of their petition as an interim relief.


Besides, they have also asked the court to declare the defiant attitude of the speaker and deputy speaker for non-compliance with the governor’s letter as mala fide and blatant violation of constitutional provisions.


Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2024


http://dlvr.it/T4cjlJ

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pragmatic steps taken to implement Axle Load Control regime on NH&MP

Islamabad: Ministry of Communications has taken pragmatic steps to implement the Axle Load Control regime on Motorways & National Highways in the country. Sole objective of this move is to control travelling of overloaded vehicles which lead to fatal accidents besides damaging the national asset of road network of billions of rupees.Prior to implementation of axle load control regime, a technical committee was formed, consisting of officers from Ministry of Communications and National Highway Authority which remained in constant contacts with transport community, Members of the Chambers of Commerce and stakeholders hailing from all the provinces. This technical committee visited their offices and held detailed discussions in series of meetings and took them into confidence to facilitate implementation of Axle Load Control regime. The stakeholders assured of their full cooperation and subsequently, implementation of Axle Load Control was realized which is in progress.It is worth to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

CJP questions how ‘clarification order’ made it to website

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa has raised nine questions in a letter to the Supreme Court’s registrar, seeking clarification on how a Sept 14 clarification order was uploaded to the top court’s website. The Sept 14 order, issued by eight judges led by senior puisne judge Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, criticised the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for failing to implement the Supreme Court’s July 12 judgement, which declared the PTI eligible for reserved seats in parliament. In his letter dated Sept 21, the CJP wondered who directed the uploading of the Sept 14 clarification order on the Supreme Court’s website. His inquiry followed a note from the Deputy Registrar (Judicial), who flagged the issue of the order’s appearance on the website. The note questioned how the order was uploaded when no cause list had been issued, no notices had been sent to the parties, and the order had not been received by the deputy registrar’s office until 8pm on the...
Post a Comment
Read more

UN awards 2 Pakistani female peacekeepers for gender advocacy

The United Nations has awarded two Pakistani female peacekeepers with the Gender Advocacy Award for their “outstanding performance”, a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. In a statement issued on Thursday, the ISPR said the awards were presented to Major Sania Safdar, part of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Cyprus, and Major Komal Masood, who served in the Central African Republic, “for their outstanding performance and commitment in promoting the ideals of UN”. The accolades were presented by the under-secretary general in the UN’s Department for Peace Operations at its New York headquarters. “While serving in [an] international environment, both officers demonstrated exceptional professionalism [and] dedication,” the ISPR noted. It added that the two peacekeepers “made [a] significant contribution to Mission’s Peace and Stability efforts, especially with regards to advancing women’s meaningful participation in Peacekeeping Operations within the ...
Post a Comment
Read more