PESHAWAR: The provincial election commissioner has postponed the Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) following the application of the opposition members.

Provincial Election Commissioner Shamshad Khan after consulting with the CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja announced the postponement of Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Following the postponement of polling, the ECP staff left the assembly with the polling material.

The opposition members moved the ECP as the dispute over the swearing-in of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s opposition members elected to reserved seats remains unresolved.

Led by Pakistan People’s Party’s Ahmad Karim Kundi, the opposition highlighted concerns over the non-swearing-in of 25 members, asserting that this could impact the fairness of the electoral process.

Earlier, the Senate election in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly could not begin at the scheduled time of 9am despite the arrangements completed by the ECP and the election staff present in the assembly.

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) had on March 27 directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly speaker to take oaths from the elected members of the reserved seats. Instead of taking the oath, the speaker filed a review petition in the court.

The speaker adopted the stance that he did not have the authority to call a session, let alone administer the oath.