KP Assembly members locked out over oath-taking standoff

PESHAWAR: The row over oath-taking of members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly elected on seats reserved for women and minorities took a serious turn on Friday as Speaker Babar Saleem Swati refused to call the house into session despite orders by Governor Ghulam Ali.

The governor, on the recommendation of the opposition leader Dr Ibadullah Khan, had asked the speaker to call the assembly session on Friday at 3 pm to administer an oath to the members elected on seats reserved for women and minorities. But his order was ignored, much to the dismay of the opposition parties that had been allotted reserved seats. The members of the opposition parties and those elected on the reserved seats reached the KP Assembly to take oath. However, the assembly staff, acting on the speaker and deputy speaker’s orders, had locked out the central gate of the assembly hall and other side entrances. The Assembly Secretariat’s portions were shut as well.

The opposition members first waited in the Women’s Chamber and later staged a protest and raised slogans at the main gate of the assembly hall. They were led by Dr Ibadullah Khan and joined by Sobia Shahid and Malik Tariq Awan of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. They condemned the action and raised slogans against the KP government and assembly speaker. Talking to the media, Dr Ibadullah Khan said KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Speaker Babar Saleem Swati were acting as employees of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder Imran Khan. The opposition leader in the provincial assembly said the KP government wanted to achieve the desired results in the Senate elections by not calling the assembly session for oath-taking even though the Peshawar High Court had upheld the ECP decision, which had allotted the reserved seats to other political parties. Elaborating his point, he said the KP government wanted to grab up to four additional Senate seats by blocking the way of lawmakers’ elected seats reserved for women and minorities. He said the speaker’s action at the behest of KP government had compelled them to move courts to enable their members to take the oath of office.