KP has prepared for the tumultuous surveys of the Senate today

Listen to the article

Peshawar:

After many teenagers, 25 opposition legislators elected seats reserved in the assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was sworn in – not to the provincial legislature, which was postponed earlier in the day due to the lack of quorum, but in the governor’s chamber on Sunday evening.

With the induction of these new AMPs, the KP assembly is finally entirely constituted almost a year and a half after the general elections of February 8, 2024. The oath of these AMPs also opened the way to the elections in the Senate for 11 seats which will be held today in the provincial assembly.

The competition includes 7 general seats, as well as 2 seats each for women and technocrats, for which a total of 16 candidates are in the running.

The elections in the Senate, carried out under the supervision of the Pakistan Electoral Commission (ECP), will allow each MPA to vote three votes.

One of the voting bulletins – white – will be for general seats. The green ballot will be intended for the technocrat seats and the Rose newspaper will be for women’s seats

To win one of the 7 general seats, a candidate will need 19 votes. For the 4 seats reserved for women and technocrats, each candidate will demand that 49 votes succeed.

The government and the opposition, by the mutual consultation, jointly presented 11 candidates – 6 supported by the government and 5 by the opposition. In addition, five other PTI candidates also arise independently.

The KP assembly could not be fully constituted after last year’s elections due to a controversy on the reserved seats, on which the province’s power party, the PTI, made a complaint. The PTI, however, lost the legal battle for the seats reserved on June 28.

Later, the ECP distributed the seats reserved for women and members of minorities among the opposition parties-the PML-N, the PPP, the JUI-F, the ANP and the PTI-P.

These AMPs, including 21 women and 4 minority members, had to take an oath during a meeting session specially requisitioned on Sunday. However, just after the start of the session, a member of the ruling party, Shair Ali Afridi, underlined the absence of a quorum.

The members of the opposition have raised agitation and organized a demonstration with the newly elected women and the representatives of the minorities surrounding the platform and singing slogans.

The opposition chief, Dr. Ibadullah Khan, asked the president, Babar Saleem Swati, to administer the oath to the MPAS, declaring that the seats had been vacant for a year and a half.

President Swati told him that a lack of quorum had now been identified. “Someone has to quote a clause that allows me to continue the assembly procedure,” he added.

When the member of the PML-NN Sobia Shahid protested, his microphone was disabled. The speaker pointed out that she was not allowed to speak because it was not a session for speeches.

After that, the speaker ordered a workforce in the assembly.

Only 25 members were present in the Chamber, which prompted him to order bells to probe for two minutes. However, the required number of members has not been respected. Consequently, the speaker postponed the session until July 24, declaring that the oath ceremony would take place during the next session.

Earlier, the PTI parliamentary party held a meeting during which members of the government were invited not to enter the room and to boycott the procedures to prevent the oath ceremony.

In a press conference after the session, Dr. Ibadullah Khan criticized the provincial government, saying: “Over the past 12 years, the province has been governed by politically immature individuals.

Subsequently, Dr. Ibadullah Khan, as well as the members of the opposition, submitted a request to the High Court of Peshawar (PHC), asking the chief judge to appoint a person appropriate under article 255, paragraph 2) of the Constitution to administer the oath to the newly elected members of the reserved seats.

Meanwhile, the ECP also approached the PHC chief judge, asking him to appoint a person to administer the oath to the new MPA. The KP chief judge, Syed Muhammad Attic Shah, later authorized the governor of KP, Faisal Karim Kundi, to take the oath.

Later, Sunday evening, a sworn ceremony took place at the house of the Governor of Peshawar where Governor Kundi took the 25 newly elected members under article 65 and article 255, paragraph 2, the Constitution and rule 6 of the procedure and conduct of the KP of commercial rules, 1988.

The ceremony brought together the federal minister of engineer Safron, Amir Muqam, opposition chief Dr Ibadullah Khan, the parliamentary chief of the PPP Ahmad Karim Kundi, the parliamentary chief of the ANP Arbab Usman Khan and the leader PML-N Murtaza Javed Abbasi with several AMPs and chefs.

After administering the oath, the governor congratulated the newly sworn members. He also thanked the Chief of the PHC for having appointed him to this important constitutional responsibility.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Government of PTI announced a challenge to take the AMP oath in the PHC.

According to the KP lawyer, Shah Faisal Utmankhel, article 65 of the Constitution stipulates that the members of the Assembly must take the oath to the house of the Assembly. He said the speaker had not refused to administer the oath; The session was adjourned due to the lack of quorum.

He added that an assembly session is scheduled for July 24 and, in such circumstances, the oath cannot be loaned to the governor’s house.

Article 255, paragraph 2, of the Constitution, uses the term “impracticable” or “impossible”, and it is only if the minister or the chief president refuses to administer the oath that the chief judge can appoint someone for this responsibility, he said.

According to the GA, neither the CM nor the speaker refused to administer the oath, and a session had been called for this purpose. “The government defies the oath administered at the Governor’s house and a formal petition will be subject to PHC today in the name of the CM,” he said.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top