Custodian of the house: Asad Qaiser’s counsel given two weeks to report on dual offices

Lawyer says issue being turned into ‘political matter’.

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday gave a two-week deadline to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser’s counsel for submitting a report stating whether the lawmaker can hold dual offices. Qaiser is also the provincial president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The order was issued by a two-member division bench comprising PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Musarrat Hilali after it was told the incumbent assembly speaker is not the custodian of the house, but of one party alone.



The writ petition challenging Qaiser’s dual offices was filed by Awami National Party’s (ANP) parliamentary leader in the K-P Assembly Sardar Hussain Babak on November 8. It claimed the speaker was engaging in political activities and also taking sides during assembly proceedings.

The petitioner’s counsels, Khushdil Khan and Abdul Latif Afridi, informed the court the incumbent speaker was elected to the post of speaker in the provincial assembly after the general elections. They added he should quit his office of the party’s provincial president, as has been the custom of the house during the previous governments.

Representing Qaiser, Qazi Muhammad Anwer termed the issue a “political matter”, adding his client can only be removed from the seat of the provincial president following party elections. He requested time to present a report to the court in this regard.

The court then gave Anwer two weeks to submit a complete report detailing whether his client can simultaneously hold two offices – that of assembly speaker and provincial president of the ruling political party.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2013.