By Staff Reporter
PESHAWAR: Twenty-five opposition lawmakers in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were sworn into office on Sunday by Governor Faisal Karim Kundi after a provincial assembly session collapsed due to a lack of quorum, setting the stage for a high-stakes showdown in Monday’s Senate elections.
The oath-taking, held at the Governor House, has drawn sharp condemnation from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which called it unconstitutional.
The ceremony followed a chaotic day in the provincial capital, where the assembly session, intended to swear in the MPAs-elect on reserved seats for women and minorities, was derailed by procedural disputes and a PTI boycott. With the Senate polls looming, the opposition’s newly sworn lawmakers now hold the key to a fragile seat-sharing deal, even as internal rifts within the PTI threaten to unravel it.
The trouble began early Sunday when the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, controlled by the PTI-led government, convened at 11:20 am, more than two hours late, to administer oaths to the 25 MPAs-elect. These lawmakers, representing opposition parties, had gained their seats following a Supreme Court ruling that redistributed reserved seats previously claimed by the PTI.
But the session barely got underway before PTI lawmaker Sher Ali Afridi pointed out a lack of quorum, halting proceedings. Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, presiding over the session, ordered a headcount and rang the bells for a five-minute break before adjourned it, declaring, “As the quorum is incomplete, the sitting is adjourned till 2 p.m. on Thursday, July 24.”
The opposition erupted in protest. Lawmakers gathered in front of the speaker’s dais, decrying the delay. Sobia Shahid of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) accused the PTI government of derailing oath-taking. “You have been making a joke out of this province for a year,” Shahid said.
She argued that a quorum challenge was invalid between the recitation of the Holy Quran and the oath-taking, but her objections went unheeded. “You cannot point out quorum during the recitation,” referring to the interruption during the Quranic recitation. She added, “Mr. speaker, this is not the right way… we’ve been denied our right to take the oath for two years.”
The swearing-in was a prerequisite for completing the electoral college ahead of Monday’s Senate elections for 11 seats.
The impasse prompted swift action from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which had petitioned the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday to ensure the oaths were administered under Article 255(2) of the Constitution. After the assembly session faltered, the PHC registrar issued an order on Sunday afternoon, accepting the ECP’s request and directing Governor Kundi to oversee the oaths “at the earliest.”
The court instructed the governor to ensure the process followed prescribed procedures and that proper records were maintained. It also directed the KP Assembly secretary to assist the new MPAs in signing the Roll of the Members. Within hours, Kundi administered the oaths at the Governor House, securing the opposition’s place in the upcoming polls.
The PTI, which had held a parliamentary meeting before the session and decided to boycott it, reacted with fury. Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur called the Governor House ceremony a “violation of the Constitution,” citing Article 65, which he said requires oaths to be taken on the assembly floor.
“The provincial assembly speaker did not refuse to administer the oath, but had to adjourn the session due to lack of quorum,” Gandapur said in a statement. “Taking oath at the Governor House is an unconstitutional act.” He insisted that only if both the speaker and chief minister refuse could the chief justice step in to nominate an alternative.
The chief minister vowed to challenge the swearing-in in court, noting that a writ petition was ready but could not be filed on Sunday due to a court holiday. “It will be submitted to the Peshawar High Court tomorrow,” he said.
The swearing-in has major implications for Monday’s Senate elections, where the opposition’s 52 lawmakers, bolstered by the newly sworn MPAs—will face off against the PTI-led treasury’s 92 members. The two sides had agreed to a 6-5 seat-sharing formula, with six seats for the government and five for the opposition, including two each for the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and one for the PML-N.
But internal dissent within the PTI has jeopardized the arrangement. Five covering candidates, Irfan Saleem, Khurram Zeeshan, Waqas Orakzai, Syed Irshad Hussain, and Ayesha Bano, have refused to withdraw their candidacies, rejecting the party’s directive to cede seats under the 6-5 formula.
The dissidents demanded that one seat each from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) be reclaimed before they would step aside. Two rounds of negotiations, including a late-night meeting between Chief Minister Gandapur and the candidates, failed to resolve the impasse. The standoff has jeopardized the prospect of unopposed Senate elections in the province, despite an earlier government-opposition agreement.
The rebellion has spilled into the streets, with PTI workers staging protests and launching social media campaigns to support loyalists like Saleem, the party’s Peshawar district president, and Bano, a former MPA. Rehman Jalal, ex-PTI Peshawar City President, warned at a press conference that the leadership must revise the ticket list or face “street protests.”
Gandapur has promised action against the dissenters. “We suffered losses due to our candidates not withdrawing their papers,” he said. “Rejecting PTI founder Imran Khan’s decision is a defiance of his position as party founder.”
Yet he insisted the deal with the opposition remains intact, calling it a “very good decision in the province’s history” and clarifying that the alliance is “only for the Senate polls.”
Governor Kundi, speaking at a press conference after the swearing-in, accused the PTI of backtracking on the agreement. “A formula of 6-5 was agreed upon and our opposition candidates withdrew,” he said. “But their members were not completely on board.”
He questioned the PTI’s cohesion, asking, “If your Senate candidates are not in control, then how are the MPAs-elect in your control?” Kundi expressed confidence that the opposition could still secure the 6-5 split by courting the assembly’s 30 to 35 independent members. “As soon as the leader of the opposition briefs us, we will have a strategy ready for tonight, and then we will contest tomorrow’s elections,” he said.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
