PHC re-issues notice in minority MPA-elect non-production case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday re-issued notice to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly's speaker and provincial government to submit comments in a petition of arrested minority Member Provincial Assembly-elect Baldev Kumar against the non-issuance of his production order to take oath of office in the assembly.

A division bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Ijaz Anwar issued the notice to the respondents. They were directed to submit comments before November 2, next hearing in the petition.

Baldev Kumar, who was arrested last year in connection with the murder of Sardar Soran Singh, the MPA elected on the minorities' seat, was seeking his production order to take oath of his office in the assembly. The petitioner was at Serial No 2 on the priority list of candidates submitted by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf for seats reserved for minorities.

He was declared returned candidate on the vacant seat after the murder of Soran Singh by the Election Commission of Pakistan. Baldev Kumar had challenged non-issuance of his production order for oath-taking through his lawyers Mohib Jan Salarzai and Muhammad Irshad Mohmand.

Speaker of the KP Assembly; secretary of the KP Assembly; ECP; provincial election commissioner of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; and KP government through law secretary were made respondents in the petition.

During arguments, the lawyer submitted that his client was a PTI leader and belonged to minority Hindu community. He said during the 2013 general election, Sardar Soran Singh was elected MPA on the seat reserved for the minorities, and was also appointed adviser to the chief minister, but was killed on April 22, 2016. He said that the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militant outfit then accepted responsibility for the killing.

The lawyer claimed that being an untraced case, the local police instead of making efforts to arrest the real culprits implicated his client and arrested him in the case on the doubt that he was at Serial No 2 on the priority list of candidates for the minorities' seat in the assembly and was to benefit from his murder.

He said the ECP declared the petitioner MPA-elect on the vacant seat on August 23, last year and made repeated requests to the speaker to issue his production order so that he could take oath of his office, but to no avail. The lawyer said the inaction of the speaker was illegal, against the constitutional provisions, based on mala fide and in violation of his oath.

He said his client was legally and constitutionally elected member of the KP Assembly under Article 106(3) of the Constitution and was duly notified by the ECP. The lawyer added that not only the petitioner had been deprived of his fundamental rights but large number of members of minority communities had been deprived of their representation in the KP Assembly.