KP governor administers oath to MPAs on PHC orders

PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD: As per directives of Peshawar High Court (PHC), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi on Sunday administered oath to newly elected members of provincial assembly elected on reserved seats.

The oath was administered by Governor Faisal Karim Kundi following a nomination order issued by the Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court.

Governor Kundi congratulated the 21 women and four minority MPAs on assuming their constitutional responsibilities and expressed gratitude to the Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court for the crucial nomination.

Earlier, the oath-taking ceremony was scheduled to take place at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly but Speaker Babar Salim Swati adjourned the session till July 24 due to lack of quorum.

On the request of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), PHC Chief Justice nominated the governor to administer the oath to the MPAs-elect under Article 255(2) of the Constitution of Pakistan.

Opposition leader Dr Ibadullah Khan claimed that the session and oath-taking on the assembly floor was delayed under a conspiracy by the treasury benches. He argued that the Constitution allowed the PHC chief justice to nominate the governor to administer the oath.

Interestingly, after the oath-taking of new members, the treasury benches will have no women and minority MPA on the reserved seats while the lawmakers elected on reserved seats will outnumber their colleagues elected on general seats on the opposition benches.

In the 145-member House, the opposition benches will now have 52 members, including 26 women elected on reserved seats and four minority lawmakers.

Deputy Speaker Suriya Bibi is the only lawmaker on the treasury benches who was elected on a general seat from Chitral.

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) will emerge as the largest parliamentary party on the opposition benches with 18 members, followed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) with 17 members. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will have now 10 members while Awami National Party and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-Parliamentarians (PTIP) with four and three members respectively.

The JUIF’s newly elected members are Belqees, wife of Israr Khan, Sitara Afreen, wife of Nawabzada Ghulam Haider, Aiman Jalil Jan, daughter of Abdul Jalil Jan, Madina Gul Afridi, wife of Noorul Haq, Rabia Shaheen, daughter of Gul Safdar, Neelofar Begum, wife of Malik Naqeebullah Khan, and Naheeda Noor, wife of Aziz Rehman. The minority MPA-elect of the JUIF are Askar Pervez and Gurpal Singh.

The PMLN women MPAs included Amina Sardar, wife of Sardar Zauq Akhtar, Faiza Malik, daughter of Pervez Khan, Afsheen Hussain, wife of Mehboob Khan, Shazia Jadoon, wife of Taimoor Malik, Jamila Paracha, wife of Mohammad Fida Qureishi, and Farah Khan, wife of Salman took oath as members of the provincial assembly. Minority MPA of PMLN Suresh Kumar also took oath of his seat.

The PPP has 10 MPAs in the provincial assembly after five of their women and one minority MPAs took oath. They included Shazia Tehmas Khan, wife of Aman Khan, Sajida Tabasum, daughter of Mohammad Yaqoob Khan, Mehar Sultana, wife of Hamidullah Jan, Ashbar Jan Jadoon, wife of Farooq Khan and Farzana Shireen, wife of Riazullah and minority MPA Behari Lal.

The ANP now has four MPAs in the provincial assembly, including Khadija Bibi from Chitral and Shahida Waheed from Mardan.

In the last general election, the ANP secured only one seat from Peshawar Arbab Usman while Mohammad Nisar Baz was elected in by-polls from Bajaur.

Also, Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur announced to file a petition in the PHC to challenge the oath-taking of members on reserved seats held at the Governor’s House. He said that the swearing-in ceremony at the Governor’s House was a violation of the Constitution.

“The Constitution’s Article 65 is clear — the oath must be taken only on the floor of the assembly,” Gandapur stated.

He clarified that the speaker had not refused to administer the oath, but the session was adjourned for lack of quorum.

“The next assembly session has been summoned for July 24. Taking oath at the Governor’s House is unconstitutional,” the chief minister added.

He said that Article 255(2) only applied in situations where it was impossible or impractical to follow the usual procedure.

“If the chief minister and speaker of the Provincial Assembly refuse, only then can the chief justice nominate someone to administer the oath,” he argued.

Gandapur insisted that both the chief minister and the speaker had fulfilled their constitutional responsibilities and a session was indeed called on Sunday.

“We are challenging the oath-taking at the Governor’s House for members on reserved seats,” he reiterated.

The chief minister said that the writ petition has been prepared, but could not be submitted today due to a court holiday.

Meanwhile, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government decided to move the PHC against the oath-taking of members elected on reserved seats.

According to Advocate General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shah Faisal Utmankhel, a writ petition would be filed on behalf of the chief minister against the swearing-in ceremony held at the Governor’s House.

He said that Article 65 of the Constitution clearly stated that members of the assembly must take the oath inside the assembly house.

The speaker, he added, did not refuse to administer the oath but had to adjourn the session for lack of quorum.

The advocate general stated that a session of the provincial assembly had already been called for July 24, and, therefore, administering oaths at the Governor’s House was unconstitutional.

He explained that Article 255(2) of the Constitution referred to the term “impracticable,” which meant only if the chief minister or speaker refused to administer the oath, the chief justice could nominate someone to do so.

However, he maintained that neither the chief minister nor the speaker refused to conduct the oath and had, in fact, scheduled the assembly session for the purpose.

He said that the government would challenge the legality of the oath taken at the Governor’s House.

Earlier, on Sunday, a session was convened for administering oaths to newly elected members on reserved seats, but the assembly speaker adjourned the meeting to July 24 citing the lack of quorum.

In response, the nominated members wrote to the PHC chief justice, expressing concern that despite Senate elections being scheduled for the same day, they were not being allowed to take oath. They feared their constituencies would be deprived of representation in the Senate.

Under Article 255(2) of the Constitution, the PHC chief justice exercised his administrative powers and directed the Registrar to issue a formal order.

Accordingly, the chief justice nominated the governor to administer the oath to the members elected on reserved minority seats.

Meanwhile, Governor Faisal Karim Kundi said the PTI had once again invented “a story” by raising objections to the oath-taking of reserved seat members, despite the fact that constitutional procedures were followed.

Speaking to the media after the oath-taking ceremony, Kundi said the summary was duly signed as per the government’s request and the tradition of swearing-in members according to the agenda was upheld.

He criticized PTI for pointing out a lack of quorum in the assembly session, saying, “Despite their objections, the oath had to be taken. They violate the Constitution and then claim to be wronged,” he remarked.

Kundi disclosed that a mutual understanding had been reached with the opposition to contest elections on five Senate seats, and the PPP had withdrawn its own candidates accordingly.

“The founding chairman, current chairman, and chief minister all approved the formula. Now they say their candidates are not under control if they can’t manage their candidates, how they will manage their voters,” he asked.

“These newly sworn-in members will cast votes tomorrow,” he added, saying that the PHC chief justice had directed him to administer the oath, and identity cards for these MPAs would be issued soon.

Earlier, on the eve of elections for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) seats in the Senate, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Sunday again wrote to the Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court (PHC) to urgently appoint a person to administer oath to the MPAs-elect of the KP Assembly.

The first such request was made to the chief justice on July 16 through the PHC registrar and the second took place immediately after the KP Assembly session was adjourned for want of quorum and hence the oath to the members-elect could not be held.

Detailing the background of the whole matter, the letter written by ECP Secretary Omar Hamid Khan on behalf of the commission says that it is noteworthy to mention here, “Our request to the Chief Minister for summoning of the session and administering of the oath to the members-elect on reserved seats was not deliberately taken seriously.”

However, he pointed out when the request was made to the PHC CJ, only then some action was taken for summoning of the session, after initial reluctance.

“Today the session of the KP Assembly, which started after delay, was called off after lack of quorum was pointed out. Under such circumstances, it appears that there is a likelihood of such practice being repeated to delay the administering of oath to members-elect and conduct of Senate elections in KP,” the letter reads.

The ECP secretary drew attention towards the request made to the Peshawar High Court for nomination of a person in terms of Article 255(2) of the Constitution to administer the oath of the members-elect against the reserved seats for women and non-Muslims from Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He wrote that to fulfill its Constitutional obligations to complete the process of Senate election, the Election Commission once again requests the Chief Justice, Peshawar High Court to urgently nominate a person in terms of Article 255(2) of the Constitution for administering the oath to the members-elect of the KP Assembly against the reserved seats for women and non-Muslims.

The ECP secretary highlighted that the matter was earlier taken up with the Speaker, Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for administration of oath to the members-elect. However, after the inability shown by the Speaker, the Election Commission for the administration of the oath and keeping in view the sensitivity of the matter, requested the Chief Minister for issuance of advice to the Governor in terms of Article 105 read with Article 130 of the Constitution.

Similarly, he wrote the Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was also requested to exercise his powers conferred upon him under Article 109 of the Constitution to summon the session of the Provincial Assembly to ensure conduct of Senate Election on 21st July.

Immediately after this letter, the ECP spokesperson said that the announcement of time for the oath-taking will be made by the Governor House, whereas it was earlier stated that this event will be held at 9am Monday and Senate election process is scheduled to begin at 11:00am at Jirga Hall.

He also said the Election Commission had issued instructions to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Chief Secretary for security arrangements.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) in the Senate and Chairman Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Senator Irfan Siddiqui on Saturday accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of attempting to obstruct the oath-taking of opposition lawmakers, likening it to what he called the party’s “undemocratic and unconstitutional” conduct during the 2022 no-confidence vote. In a statement posted on social media platform X, Irfan Siddiqui said, “Just as PTI could not stop the no-confidence motion, it will also fail to prevent opposition members from taking their oath.” He questioned PTI’s claims of reconciliation, saying, “What kind of reconciliation is this if opposition lawmakers are being barred from fulfilling their constitutional duty.”

Senator Irfan Siddiqui said the PTI had once again proved its disregard for parliamentary democracy, insisting the party only thrives on “chaos, street protests, and violent agitation.” “This is the same unconstitutional behaviour that the PTI founder adopted through Qasim Suri and Dr Arif Alvi to escape the no-confidence motion,” he added. He reiterated that parliamentary and constitutional processes could not be hijacked through coercion or political maneuvering, and that the system would ultimately prevail.