Peshawar High Court has stopped that 25 National Assembly members elected to reserved seats from taking oath.
The stay order came in a case filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf against a decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan that denied it reserved seats in the assembly.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Shakeel Ahmad announced the decision on Wednesday shortly after it was reserved.
The court issued notice to the ECP in the case. It also asked the Attorney General and Advocate General for advice on whether the it has jurisdiction to decide the matter.
The case has been sent to the chief justice of the Peshawar High Court to fix it before a larger bench.
Qazi Anwar appeared in the case on behalf of the PTI and told the court that the party’s candidates had contested the elections as independent candidates after being denied the bat symbol by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Anwar told the court that successful candidates joined the Sunni Ittehad Council. However, 21 reserved seats for woemn and four seats for minorities that were the party’s right were awarded to other parties instead.
Justice Ibrahim asked the lawyer if the ECP decision on reserved seats was limited to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to which Anwar replied that only one decision had been issued.
A dissenting note by an ECP member, who said that the seats should not be awarded to other parties, was also mentioned in the court. However, the judge questioned whether the seats would remain vacant in such a scenario.
PTI’s counsel argued that the ECP has notified members of other parties on the 25 seats and the court should stop these members from taking oath.
The court then reserved its decision on whether to issue a stay order in the case.
