PESHAWAR: Elected to reserved seats, members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to postpone the Senate elections until after they take office.
A five-member bench led by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja considered the petition against the denial of oath-taking brought by the recently elected female and minority MPAs.
In Islamabad, the freshly elected members came before the ECP bench. On this occasion, the secretary of the KP Assembly was also present.
The complainants’ attorney, Shah Khawar, stated at the court that the KP speaker ought to have taken an oath from the female members on March 4 because that is when the ECP sent out notifications to them.
He insisted that the speaker of the KP Assembly was required by the constitution and the law to call a meeting and administer an oath.
The attorney was questioned by the chief election commissioner about how the ECP could order the speaker of the KP Assembly. The KP Assembly delegate was questioned by the ECP as to why the recently elected MPAs were not being sworn in.
The secretary said that although the speaker had never objected to giving them an oath, the KP governor’s act of calling the meeting was “illegitimate”.
