Former legislator told to pay cost for issuance of notices

Court says failure to pay may result in dismissal of petitions.

KARACHI: Former legislator, Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, has been directed to pay the cost for issuance of notice on his plea which asked for an increased number of reserved seats in the National Assembly for the religious minorities.

Ramesh Kumar had taken the Election Commission of Pakistan, the federal law secretary and Sindh chief secretary to the court over less representation of the religious minority communities in the house of legislation.

In his plea, he argued that the religious minorities were patriotic citizens, who included jurists, intellectuals, professionals and national heroes. But, they were not given adequate representation in assemblies.



Pursuant to the 20th constitutional amendment, he argued, adequate seats in the NA had to be allocated to each province, federally administered areas and the federal capital, on the basis of population in accordance with law.

But, the number of reserved seats for the religious minority in NA has not been increased, he alleged.

He pleaded to the court to direct the ECP, federal and governments to allocate adequate seats in the National Assembly to the religious minorities in every province as current representation was inadequate.

On February 19, the SHC had issued notice to ECP, federal law secretary and Sindh chief secretary, but the same could not be issued as the petitioner failed to pay cost.



Chief Justice Mushir Alam, who headed the bench, directed him to pay cost in seven days. Otherwise, the petitions would be dismissed without passing any further order.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th, 2013.