Hearing adjourned in PMLN minority seat petition

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday adjourned hearing in a petition filed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) against the allotment of a seat reserved for women and minority in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl.

A division bench of the PHC cocomprising Justice SM Attique Shah and Justice Arshad Ali adjourned the hearing after JUIF counsel told the bench that their senior lawyer was in Islamabad, therefore, hearing in the case should be fixed for another date.

Earlier, PMLN lawyer Barrister Saqib Raza informed the court that his client party and the JUIF had won the equal number of seats in the general but the Election of Pakistan had allotted one seat more than the PMLN.

According to the set formula, he pleaded that the ECP should have conducted a draw on the one before allotting it to JUIF.It may be mentioned that PMLN had challenged the minority reserved seat allotted to JUIF in the Peshawar High Court (PHC).

The petition filed in the PHC had made the ECP, KP Assembly speaker and others respondents.The petition stated that the ECP had deprived the PMLN of minority reserved seats. The PMLN had claimed that the reserved seat of minority was the due right of the party.It had mentioned that PMLN had won five general seats from KP and two joined later on, therefore, the party must be given the seat reserved for minorities.