Oath-taking amidst legal dispute chaos

AGP tells NA PHC order not binding on legislatures of Punjab, K-P and Balochistan

ISLAMABAD:

In an apparent bid to complete the electoral college before the presidential election, speakers at the National Assembly and the provincial legislature of Punjab on Friday administered oaths to new ruling parties’ lawmakers on additional reserved seats.

These oath-taking ceremonies were marred by loud protests by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) lawmakers, who described the move as illegal and a contempt of court.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on March 4 rejected an SIC’s request to allocate its reserved seats for women and minorities because of the failure of the party—which consists of PTI backed lawmakers—to submit a priority list for these seats prior to polls.

The polls oversight authority had noted that the reserved seats in the National Assembly shall not remain vacant and will be allocated by proportional representation process to other political parties.

The SIC had moved the Peshawar High Court (PHC) which on March 6 stayed the ECP notification. The party also moved the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the order but on Friday it failed to convene the court to stop ruling parties’ candidates from taking oath on seats, which, the SIC claimed, belonged to it.

The LHC rather deferred the matter till March 13 while issuing notices to respondents.

So when the NA sitting started on Friday, the SIC members tried to stop the speaker from continuing the session by pointing out the lack of a quorum. However, when the quorum was found in order, the speaker started administering oaths to four lawmakers elected on reserved seats amid a loud protest.

The SIC lawmakers argued that the PHC had ruled that lawmakers could not take oath on the reserved seats till further orders, saying administering oath was a violation of the court order.

PTI-SIC leader Omar Ayub said: “We condemn those who are forced upon us through Form-47 elections and will continue to do so until our full 180 members arrive at the assembly.”

Ayub also criticized the timing of the oath-taking, noting that on International Women's Day, unconstitutional oaths were taken, and the SIC was robbed of its women's seats.

PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan seconded Ayub and argued that PTI’s members in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies joined the SIC, expecting that the reserved seats based on their quota would be given to the party. However, he regretted, it did not happen.

“The ECP’s decision has been stayed by the PHC, making the oath-taking unlawful,” he said.

The speaker, while clarifying that the PHC order has not reached the speaker’s office yet, asked the Attorney-General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman to explain the matter further.

The AGP while speaking on the floor of the house said that the PHC order was limited to the extent of the provincial lawmakers’ oath and it could not be applied to other provinces, especially when similar matters were pending before the courts concerned there.

Admitting that it would have been a contempt of court had the speaker administered oath to the lawmakers elected on reserved seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the AGP said no violation was committed by administering oaths to the lawmakers belonging to other areas.

Amidst protest, a resolution regarding International Women’s Day was passed with a majority vote. The session was then adjourned till 2pm on March 13 after the house also passed a resolution to hand over the Parliament House to the ECP on March 9 for presidential elections.

In the Punjab Assembly, the speaker also administered oath to 24 new lawmakers elected on reserved seats by virtue of the ECP’s March 4 order amid protests by the SIC members.

The MPAs who took oath on women’s seat were Sadia Muzaffar, Fiza Maimoona, Abida Bashir, Maqsoodan Bibi, Amira Khan, Somia Atta, Rahat Afza, Rukhsana Shafiq, Tahseen Fawad, Farzana Abbas, Shagufta Faisal, Uzma Butt, Maria Talal, Sajda Naveed, Nasreen Riaz, Afsheen Hasan, Amna Parveen, Shahr Bano, Zeba Ghafoor, Rubina Nazir and Syeda Sameera.
Tariq Masih, Waseem Anjum and Basru Ji were sworn in on minority seats.