KP Assembly speaker meets opposition leader

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati met opposition leader Dr Ibadullah Khan on Wednesday to discuss the convening of the house session and other issues.

The meeting was arranged in the Speaker’s Chamber, said the opposition leader while talking to reporters later.

“The constitution of various house committees and assembly rules came under discussion,” said Dr Ibadullah, who is the younger brother of provincial chief of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Amir Muqam.

Dr Ibad said the KP Assembly was likely to meet on the 10th or 13th of this month.

It is worth mentioning here that the KP government and the opposition parties have been at loggerheads over the oath-taking of the members elected on the seats reserved for women and minorities.

As many as 25 members of the provincial assembly have not taken oath of offices to date. Of them 21 were declared elected on the seats reserved for women while four on seats reserved for minorities.

The opposition parties had moved the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against the KP government for not convening the provincial assembly session and denying their members to take oaths.

The opposition parties wanted the KP Assembly convened so that their members could take oaths. But the KP government refused to call the assembly into session despite the PHC orders.

The KP government, on the other hand, opined that the reserved seats, which were allotted to the opposition parties, in fact, belonged to Sunni Ittehad Council/ Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and these were unjustly given by the Election Commission of Pakistan to the opposition parties. This is the reason that the KP Assembly has not been convened yet.