Islamabad:
The power coalition obtained a majority of two thirds in the Senate, the emerging PPP as the largest party, followed by PTI and PML-N.
According to Express News, the PPP obtained 26 seats in the upper room; Followed by the PTI, which also has 16 senators and the support of six independent legislators.
The PML-N now has 20 seats; BAP has four seats while the MQM and the ANP each have three senators. JUI-F now has a total of 7 senators. The PTI obtained six of the 11 seats in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Senate where elections in the Senate took place on Monday.
Once earlier, 25 opposition legislators were elected to seats reserved for the KP assembly took oath – not to the provincial legislature, the meeting of which was postponed earlier during the lack of quorum, but at the Governor’s House.
With the induction of these new AMPs, the KP Assembly has finally become fully 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 were held on Monday in the provincial assembly.
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 Pakistan Electoral Commission (ECP) distributed the seats reserved for women and members of minorities among the opposition parties-PML-N, PPP, JUI-F, ANP and 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.
Later, 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.
Subsequently, the head of the KP opposition, Dr. Ibadullah Khan, as well as the members of the opposition, submitted a petition before the High Court of Peshawar (PHC), asking the chief judge to appoint an appropriate person under article 255, paragraph 2, of the Constitution to administer the oath to the new elected members.
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.
