PESHAWAR: Amid continuous debate over the allotment of reserved seats, Peshawar High Court (PHC) Chief Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan has stated that the stay order is only applicable to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), The News reported on Sunday.
Speaking to the media after the presidential election voting in the provincial assembly, where he fulfilled his responsibilities as the presiding officer, the chief justice clarified that those to be sworn in in the National Assembly (NA) in light of the PHC order “did not commit contempt of court”.
His statements came as the PHC, on Wednesday, banned the oath-taking of MPs notified on the aforementioned reserved seats, prohibiting members from swearing in after the court was moved by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC),the election body’s decision on allocating reserved seats to other political parties.
The court’s five-member bench, which is hearing the case, then extended the stay order until March 13.
Despite the court’s order, four MNAs elected on reserved seats took oath in the lower house, prompting protests from the opposition benches, who were informed that neither NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had received the PHC’s against oathtaking of members, nor the lawmakers sworn in belonged to the KP.
Earlier this week, the ECP rejected the SIC’s (which included PTI-backed independent candidates) request for reserved seats.
Instead, the election body accepted appeals from competing parties and concluded that the seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies would not remain vacant and would be allocated by a proportional representation process of political parties on the basis of seats won by political parties.
