Taking oath as member of assembly: Court asks KP Assembly to issue production order of arrested MPA

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday directed the Khyber Pakhtun-khwa Assembly’s speaker to issue production order of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf arrested Member Provincial Assembly-elect Baldev Kumar for taking his oath as member of the assembly. A two-member bench comprising Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Muhammad Ghazanfar Khan allowed the writ petition of the arrested MPA-elect Baldev Kumar filed against the provincial government and KP Assembly speaker for not issuing his production order to take oath of his office in the assembly.

During the hearing, Mohib Jan Salarzai, lawyer for Baldev Kumar, submitted that the petitioner was arrested last year in connection with the murder of Sardar Soran Singh, the MPA elected on the minorities’ seat of the PTI. Being on Serial No 2 on the priority list of candidates submitted by the ruling PTI for seats reserved for minorities, he said the petitioner was declared returned candidate on the said vacant seat by the Election Commission of Pakistan after the murder of Sardar Soran Singh, who was minority MPA and advisor to KP chief minister. The lawyer Mohib Jan said his client was a PTI leader and belonged to minority Hindu community.

He said during the 2013 general elections, Sardar Soran Singh was elected MPA on the seat reserved for minorities, and was also appointed adviser to the chief minister, but was killed on April 22, 2016.

The banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility for the killing. The lawyer claimed that being an untraced case, the local police instead of making efforts to arrest the real culpritsmplicated his client and arrested him in the case as he was at Serial No 2 on the priority list of candidates for the minorities’ seat in the assembly.

He 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.

The lawyer claimed that the petitioner was still a loyal and dedicated PTI worker and had never deviated from the party’s policies nor had he ever been disqualified from holding any public office.

However, the law officer, representing the provincial government failed to defend the questions raised in the petition by the petitioner.