Twenty-five members elected on reserved seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly took their oath at the Governor House on Sunday after an order from the Peshawar High Court.
Governor Faisal Karim Kundi administered the oath at a ceremony in Peshawar, which was attended by the newly elected women and minority members of the provincial assembly.
This ceremony came after a long delay caused by a PTI member who pointed out the lack of quorum during an earlier assembly session, which postponed the swearing-in.
Officials said the oath-taking was originally supposed to happen during the KP Assembly session held earlier that day. But the session, chaired by Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, was cut short when PTI member Sher Ali Afridi raised the quorum issue, leading to the session being postponed until July 24.
This disruption worried opposition parties, who approached the Peshawar High Court to ask that the oath-taking not be delayed. They said this delay could affect the Senate elections scheduled for Sunday, July 21, since the swearing-in of reserved seat members is necessary for the voting process.
In response, PHC Chief Justice SM Atiq Shah appointed Governor Faisal Karim Kundi to conduct the oath ceremony. The court also instructed the KP Assembly Secretary to help with the process and share the list of members who needed to be sworn in.
At the Governor House, 21 women and 4 minority members took the oath. Some of the female members included Farah Khan, Amna Sardar, Faiza Malik, Shazia Jadoon, Afshan Hussain, Jamila Paracha, Sonia Hussain, Bilqis, Sitara Afreen, Aiman Jalil Jan, Madiha Gul Afridi, Rabia Shaheen, Niloofar Begum, Naheed Noor, Shazia Tahmas, Sajida Tabassum, Meher Sultana, Ashbar Jan Jadoon, Farzana Shireen, Khadija Bibi, and Shahida Waheed.
The minority members were Askar Pervez, Gurpal Singh Afridi, Suresh Kumar, and Bihari Lal. Nadia Sher from PTI-Parliamentarians also took the oath as a member of the KP Assembly.
