ECP says cannot remove alleged murderer’s name from priority list before court’s decision. SOURCE: DUNYA TV
This was said by a spokesperson of the poll body.
He added the name can only be removed if all the people in the priority list die – that is to say when the priority list is “exhausted”.
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However, at present Kumar’s name is immediately after Soran’s on the priority list. The spokesperson added even if ECP removes Kumar’s name without getting the court’s verdict in the case of Soran’s murder, and later if the court declares Kumar innocent, then the latter can file a writ petition against ECP for removing his name from the list. As a result, Kumar is likely to get the berth legally.
As Kumar has been accused of Soran’s murder, the house members are not ready to sit with him in the assembly hall.
Caught in a cleft stick
Speaking about the issue, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Qaiser told The Express Tribune what Kumar did was not acceptable for the house and members of the assembly have warned that if he takes the seat, they would not attend the session where he is present.
“I have issued a letter to the election commission with the hope that they would not allow a murderer to take oath for the seat of the [minorities] MPA, after murdering a member of the respectable house,” Qaiser said.
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He alleged Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has also suspended the membership of Kumar and now they were trying to remove his name from the priority list that the party had submitted to the election commission after the general elections in 2013.
“If ECP does not remove his name then we have no other way except to approach the court,” he added.
No legal way
An official of the law department quoted Section 8F of Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002 in the case.
The section reads that if a seat — reserved for women or non-Muslims in the national or provincial assemblies — falls vacant over death, resignation or disqualification of a member, it shall be filled in by the next person in order or precedent from the party’s list of candidates submitted to ECP under Clause 1.
This means it is not possible for the election commission to remove Kumar’s name, as it was second after Soran’s, as mentioned by the party.
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However, the official said if a person is disqualified from a party, his/her name would automatically be removed from the priority list as it is not clearly mentioned in the law that political party cannot submit another priority list after suspending its member who was in that particular list.
In this regard, she added, the law should be very clear but unfortunately what happened in Soran’s case is something really new.
“Therefore, the federal government should reconsider this law as it can create a problem in future,” she added.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 21st, 2016.
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