Pakistan: Court orders provincial assembly to administer oath of office to Hindu member
Baldev Kumar moved the high court after the Speaker refused to invite him to take oath as he was accused of killing a member of the provincial Assembly.
world Updated: Feb 08, 2018 22:54 IST
The Peshawar high court on Thursday directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial Assembly speaker to administer oath to jailed Hindu lawmaker of Pakistan Tehrik- e-Insaaf Baldev Kumar as a minority member of the House.
Kumar is in jail on charges of his involvement in assassination of a party leader Sardar Soran Singh.
He moved the high court after the Speaker refused to invite him to take oath as he was accused of killing the PTI member of Provincial Assembly.
Kumar, in his plea, said that the Election Commission of Pakistan had declared him elected on the vacant seat in August 2016, making him eligible to take the oath of office, but the Speaker “time and again” failed to issue his production order so that he could take the oath.
He was second in the priority list of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) for minority members who were elected to the assembly.
The division bench of Justices Ikramullah Khan and Muhammad Ghazanfar directed the Speaker to administer oath to Kumar and dismissed the petition.