As the Senate Elections are scheduled to be held on July 21 (today) the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi on Sunday administered the oath to 25 opposition’s reserved seats MPAs, in compliance with the Peshawar High Court (PHC) order.
The development comes hours after the opposition MPAs filed a petition in the PHC, urging the chief justice to nominate an authority to oversee the oath-taking process after the KP Assembly speaker adjourned the session due to a lack of quorum.
As many as 21 women and four minority members took their oath as members of the KP Assembly on reserved seats. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly session was adjourned shortly after it commenced due to a lack of quorum as the PTI lawmakers skipped the crucial sitting earlier today.
KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, who started the proceedings with a delay of over two hours, adjourned the session when PTI MPA Sher Ali Afridi pointed out the lack of quorum.
The chair then ordered headcount and rang the bells for a five-minute break before finally adjourning the session until July 24.
The decision to skip the assembly session came after the PTI KP chapter parliamentary party meeting decided to boycott the sitting.
Earlier the leader of the Opposition in KP Assembly Dr Ibadullah Khan also expressed displeasure over the speaker’s move, warning that the opposition would take legal action.
“We’ll go to court and request the chief justice to intervene,” he said. “If the oath isn’t taken now, it should at least happen later this evening,” he had warned.
