Angry MPAs block administering oath to alleged murderer

PESHAWAR: Angry members of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Tuesday broke the quorum of the house to block administering of oath to the MPA-elect on minority reserved seat Baldev Kumar.

The MPA-elect, who is behind bars for alleged murder of Sardar Soran Singh, then advisor to the chief minister near his house in district Buner, on April 23, 2016.

The accused was number two in the priority list of the ruling PTI for the minority reserved seats.

The MPA-elect was produced for administering oath as member of the provincial assembly on the orders of the Peshawar High Court (PHC). He was sitting in the house and waiting for the announcement of the Speaker to invite him for administering oath.

But, soon after the recitation from the Holy Quran, Mahmood Khan Bhatni of JUI-F took the floor and pinpointed the presence of an alleged murderer in the house. He claimed that the accused had murdered their colleague.

Criticizing the presence of Baldev Kumar in the house, he said that the accused had been brought to the house just for obtaining his vote in the Senate poll scheduled for March 3, 2018. He said that the opposition condemned the attitude of the treasury for bringing him to the house.

Provincial Minister for Information, Shah Farman tried to pacify the protesting opposition by telling the house that the accused had been produced in the house on the order of the high court. The order, he said was issued to the speaker, who also read out the order in the house.

The Leader of Opposition, Maulana Lutf-ur-Rehman said the government should have defended the case in the court of law. But, it had given safe passage to the accused for the sake of only one vote for Senate polls. He said that the opposition condemned such attitude of the provincial government.

Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha of the PML-N said that the deceased Sardar Soran Singh was also affiliated with PTI and the accused had murdered him to replace him in the house. He also reminded the chair of his pledges made in the house that the accused would not be allowed to enter the house.

The PML-N legislator criticized the provincial government for not challenging the order of the high court in the Supreme Court. The matter, he said had become a cause of notoriety for the PTI.

He strongly opposed the administering of oath to the accused and threatened of staging a protest against him.

Mufti Fazal Ghafoor of JUI-F, who also hails from district Buner, said that the matter was internal issue of the ruling PTI, but being a member of the home district of the deceased, he at least demanded that before producing the accused in the house, the provincial government should have cleared him from the court.

The Provincial Minister for Information, Shah Farman once again took the floor and termed the feelings of the house as genuine and reiterated that the accused had been produced on the directives of the court.

He said that the members of both treasury and opposition benches would stage walkout to block administering of oath through breaking quorum in the house. Some of the members even demanded exit of the accused from the house.

Following the walkout of the members from the house, the Speaker after counting the members adjourned the proceedings of the house till 3 p.m. of Friday (March 2).