Peshawar High Court bars oath-taking of reserved seats' beneficiaries

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday barred the oath-taking of beneficiaries of reserved seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, ARY News reported.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Dr. Khurshid Iqbal heard the petition filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P), challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision regarding the allocation of reserved seats.

The petitioner’s counsel, Advocate Sultan Muhammad Khan, argued that the ECP had incorrectly distributed the reserved seats.

He maintained that PTI Parliamentarians were entitled to two seats in the provincial assembly, but the ECP only allotted one seat for women. He also claimed that the party is entitled to one minority seat.

Justice Arshad Ali remarked, “Even though PTI is in power in the province, it is also being denied seats.”

The court barred the oath-taking of members elected on reserved seats until the next hearing and issued notices to the ECP. The hearing was subsequently adjourned.

Earlier, the SC’s Constitutional Bench on Friday rejected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI)-backed Sunni Ittehad Council’s plea, seeking reserved seats in the national and all provincial assemblies on the basis of its general seats.

The bench, headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan, set aside the apex court’s earlier judgment and restored the Peshawar High Court ruling that ruled that the reserved seats would be distributed among other parties.

This includes the restoration of eight women National Assembly members from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 11 women members on seats Assembly from Punjab as well as three non-Muslim seats.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz secured 14 seats in the National Assembly, while the Pakistan People’s Party and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl managed to get five and three seats in the lower house.