Peshawar:
The High Court of Peshawar (PHC) aroused the nomination of the legislators appointed on Tuesday for seats reserved for women and minorities of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly, following a petition deposited by Pakistan Tehreek-E-insaf (PTI-P).
The president of PTI-P, Mehmood Khan, challenged on March 4, 2024, notification issued by the Pakistan Electoral Commission (ECP). He argued that, on the basis of the party’s success ratio, PTI-P was entitled to three seats reserved for women and minorities, but only received one seat.
A PHC bench of two members, including judge Syed Arshad Ali and judge Dr. Khurshid Iqbal, heard the petition filed through the PTI-P lawyer, Sultan Muhammad Khan. The court issued opinions and asked for answers to the ECP.
The petition said that Arbab Waseem and Iqbal Wazir were elected members of the Provincial Assembly on PTI-P tickets. He also added that all PTI candidates had challenged the elections as independent and later joined the Sunni ITTEHAD (sic) council.
Due to the limited representation of PTI in the Assembly, the reserved seats were distributed among the other parliamentary parties. Consequently, PTI-P received only one seat, although the party said it was entitled to three seats reserved for women and minorities according to its success ratio.
During the hearing, judge Ali pointed out that the petitioner should approach ECP rather than the court. The lawyer argued that taking oath of the entrants of legislators would be administered once the assembly session at the start, which could make the petition ineffective.
He asked the court to delay the oath until the petition was decided. After hearing the first arguments, the court ordered a suspension to take the oath for the reserved seats and asked for an answer to the ECP.
In addition, the National Awami Party (ANP) had also placed a petition with the ECP. Lawyer Babar Yousafzai argued that the ANP initially allocated a reserved seat, but after the victory of Nisar Baz in the by -elections, the party now holds two general seats in the provincial assembly.
He asked that the ECP revises the allocation of the reserved seats to reflect the update of the ANP and grant the part the reserved seats corresponding accordingly.
