Peshawar:
Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday relocated the residence order on the severe ring of the incoming legislators on the reserved seats for women and minorities in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) assembly and instructed the Election Commission in Pakistan (ECP) to decide the distribution of the seats for 10 days.
A two membership bench consisting of Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Dr. Khurshid Iqbal, heard the petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf parliamentarians (PTI-P) and Awami National Party (ANP), which challenges the seats distribution of ECP.
During the hearing, Sultan Muhammad represented Khan PTI-P, while Babar Khan Yousafzai appeared in court on behalf of the ANP. They had claimed that the ECP had assigned both parties to a seat each while deserving several seats according to their strength in the house.
On Tuesday, PHC had stayed by the oath of legislators who were nominated for reserved seats in the KP assembly on the petition filed by the PTI-P chairman. The petitioner had contested the ECP message on March 4, 2024.
He claimed that PTI-P based on the party’s success relationship was entitled to three reserved places for women and one for minorities, but was only assigned to a seat. The court sent the residence order and issued notice and sought answers from the ECP.
During the consultation on Thursday, ECP special secretary Muhammad Arshad stated the court that PTI-P had applied for ECP, but its use was rejected. Later, the ECP specialty secretary added PTI-P moved Islamabad High Court (IHC), where its petition was still pending.
In response to a court of moving the two high courts declared PTI-P-lawyer Sultan Muhammad Khan that he represented the petitioner in PHC and did not know about any litigation in IHC. Later, the PTI-P lawyer withdrew his petition.
Yusufzai, the lawyer for the ANP, said his petition was also pending in PHC. The ECP special secretary replied that the case of the AP was different from PTI-P when one of its candidates won in the election, which did not affect the allocation of the reserved seats.
The bench lifted his residence order after the withdrawal of PTI-P’s petition, while submitting the ANP’s petition about the distribution of reserved seats to the ECP. The Court ordered the ECP to hear considering ANP’s application and making a decision within 10 days.
