PESHAWAR : Issuing a contempt notice to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker, the Peshawar High Court Friday ordered him to allow MPA-elect Baldev Kumar to take oath otherwise it would stay the Senate elections to be held in the KP Assembly.
The two-member bench comprising Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Ayub Khan issued this order while hearing a petition filed by MPA-elect Baldev Kumar, seeking permission to be sworn in as a provincial lawmaker on a minority seat which had fallen vacant after the assassination of Sardar Soran Singh, a lawmaker of PTI from Buner district.
The court issued a contempt notice to Speaker Asad Qaiser for his failure to administer oath to Baldev Kumar despite clear court orders.
The two-member bench also issued notices to the provincial lawmakers, including opposition leader Maulana Lutfur Rehman, Arbab Jehandad Khan, Mehmood Bhetani and Mufti Fazal Ghafoor, in this connection. The bench observed the court had not only ordered production of Baldev Kumar at the KP Assembly session but also he had been allowed to take oath as a member of the provincial assembly.
The court directed the speaker, the provincial government and the lawmakers to submit their replies as to why the court order was disobeyed.
The bench said if it did not find their replies satisfactory, the court would stay the Senate elections in KP.
Counsel for Kumar, Muhib Jan Salarzai, told the court that it had directed the KP speaker to administer oath to Baldev, but the order was disobeyed. The court observed it had the powers to stay the Senate elections if oath was not administered to Baldev Kumar by March 6. The hearing in the case was adjourned until March 6.