CM KP determined to not allow oath on their reserved seats

Peshawar: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur Tuesday said: “We will not allow anyone else to take oath illegally on our reserved seats”.

Talking to the media in Peshawar, Ali Amin Gandapur stated that the protection of the constitution is the duty of every citizen of Pakistan, the constitution is being repeatedly violated in this country.

He added that they dissolved the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, it is clearly written in the constitution that elections should be held within 90 days but they were not held, since then the constitution is not followed continuously.

Gandapur continued to say, ‘Our reserved seats were not given to us, our election symbol was also taken away from us’.

“I make it clear that we will fight this situation and go to the last limit, we will not compromise on our reserved seats, we will let anyone illegally take oath on our reserved seats,” added Chief Minister.

He further said that there is a meeting of our parliamentary party at 8:30 tonight, where we will pass some resolutions in this regard.

It is pertinent to note that the polling process for 30 vacant seats of the upper house (Senate) of the country is underway today, which will continue till 4:00pm, while the elections have been postponed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The arrangements for the Senate elections were completed in the Assembly, the polling staff was also present, but the Senate elections could not start at the scheduled time i.e. 9:00am in the Assembly.

The Provincial Election Commissioner announced the postponement of the elections. Earlier today, the opposition had submitted a request to postpone the Senate elections on the issue of not taking oath on reserved seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

The petition was submitted by Ahmed Karim Kundi of the opposition to the Provincial Election Commissioner, in which the position was taken that their 25 members have not been sworn in yet, the election should be postponed.

The Provincial Election Commissioner had contacted the Chief Election Commissioner on the opposition's request, while Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had also reached the Provincial Assembly where he consulted the members regarding the Senate elections.

Notably, the Election Commission has made the Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa subject to the oath of elected members on reserved seats.