PHC directs KP speaker to administer oath from Baldev Kumar

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has issued orders to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker to take oath from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Baldev Kumar, who is an accused in the murder case of PTI MPA Soran Singh.

During the hearing held Thursday by Justices Qaiser Rasheed and Muhammad Ayub, Kumar’s counsel said the assembly speaker was deliberately not taking oath from his client. 

The lawyer added the incumbent government’s term would end in a month but still the oath had not been administered.

To this, the provincial government’s counsel said an incomplete quorum in the assembly had been leading to a delay in the oath-taking.

However, the court directed the assembly speaker to administer oath from Kumar. 

Responses have also been sought from PTI’s Arbab Jahandad and others, who created chaos in the assembly when Kumar was taken there to take oath earlier this year. 

PTI MPA hurls shoe at Baldev Kumar in KP assembly

Kumar has been accused in Soran Singh murder case and is facing a trial by an anti-terrorism court in Peshawar.

Jahandad had hurled a shoe at Kumar, questioning how a murderer could step in the assembly.

Kumar was produced in the assembly following the PHC order of taking him there “to administer oath as member of the provincial assembly of KP on minority seat in terms of Article 65 of the Constitution”.

He was facing trial at an anti-terrorism court in Peshawar over the murder of Soran Singh, the adviser to KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who was assassinated in his native village in Buner on April 22, 2016. 

Soran was elected to the provincial assembly on a minority seat. Kumar was second in the list of PTI's candidates on a reserved seat for minorities.