PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur announced to protest against the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) decision regarding postponement of the Senate elections in his province.
Talking to the media here on Tuesday, Gandapur strongly protested against the allocation of his party's reserved seats for women and minorities to other parties in all the assemblies. He said that they will not allow illegal and unconstitutional people to take oaths, adding that the constitution is being repeatedly broken in the country and his party's reserved seats are not being given to them. CM asked how their seats could be given to someone else. He also announced that they would not be giving women's seats to opponent parties in any case.
The CM said that the party leader [Imran Khan] was in jail, the party symbol of 'Bat' was snatched and reserved seats were allocated to others unconstitutionally. Gandapur said they would fight for rights within the province and a parliamentary party meeting has been called for this purpose.
CM raised a question: why is the judicial commission not being formed on the letter of six judges of Islamabad High Court? The chief minister said the Constitution in the country was being violated repeatedly. He said, "We will go to the limit. We will not back down. Lawmakers on reserved seats will not be allowed to take oath illegally."
The Constitution was breached by not holding elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa within 90 days."
Gandapur said PTI's election symbol and seats were snatched away. Soon this whole system will be exposed.
The KP chief minister said violation of Article 6 of the Constitution was punishable by death.
He said the elected members on reserved seats illegally requested to postpone the election. "We will lodge a strong protest against the postponement of Senate elections in KP. We will fight tooth and nail to get our rights," said Gandapur. He said founder PTI had taught a lesson to adopt the path of struggle for the Constitution and law. "We will not compromise on the rights of women and minorities. We will ensure the protection of women's rights. We will ensure sanctity of vote is respected," he said.
The CM said "The PTI had demanded a judicial commission on May 9 events.
Why a judicial commission, has not been formed on May 9 and Cipher?" asked the chief minister.
Earlier, the Election Commissioner of Pakistan (ECP) postponed the Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Election Commissioner Shamshad Khan announced the commission's decision as returning officer for the KP Assembly.
Earlier, Opposition lawmakers in KP Assembly had submitted a resolution to the provincial election commissioner to postpone the Senate elections.
Arrangements were complete for conducting Senate elections in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.
The staff for holding Senate elections was present in the Assembly; however, polling for the upper house election could not be started even after 10 am. The request for deferment of elections was submitted by Ahmed Karim Kundi of the opposition to the provincial election commissioner.
The opposition member took the stance that 25 members on reserved seats had not taken oath as yet so the election should be postponed. The provincial election commissioner had approached the Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja on the request of the opposition.
In a related development, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has summoned the session of the party's parliamentary body after Iftar on Tuesday.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024