PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday barred the oath-taking of women and minority members on reserved seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and sought replies from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the speaker of the assembly.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal issued the order during the hearing of a petition filed by Mahmood Khan, Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTIP).
During the proceedings, the petitioner’s counsel, Sultan Mohammad Khan, informed the court that his client’s party, PTIP, secured two general seats in the last provincial elections, with Arbab Waseem and Iqbal Wazir winning as independent candidates and later joining the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
Sultan argued that the ECP, citing PTI’s absence from the assembly, distributed all reserved seats among the other parliamentary parties. PTIP was allotted only one reserved seat despite being entitled to at least three women’s
