<\/p>\n
PTI-backed lawmakers on Friday took strong exception to the oath-taking of National Assembly members on reserved seats, terming it \u201ccontempt of court\u201d and \u201cunconstitutional\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Imran Khan-led party \u2014 which has found a home<\/a> in the Sunni Ittehad Council following its victory in the February 8 general elections sans an electoral symbol \u2014 contested that the reserved seats on which MNAs were sworn in should have been allocated to the SIC.<\/p>\n The party has been at odds with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) after the latter rejected an SIC petition<\/a> seeking the allocation of reserved seats. Earlier this week, the SIC challenged the electoral watchdog\u2019s verdict in the Peshawar High Court, which deferred<\/a> the oath-taking of nine women lawmakers, who had been awarded the reserved seats claimed by the party.<\/p>\n Today, as the NA session convened, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq administered oath to lawmakers on reserved women and minority seats.<\/p>\n Speaking on the floor of the assembly following the oath-taking, PTI-backed independent MNA Omer Ayub Khan \u2014 who has been nominated as the Leader of the Opposition \u2014 stated that the swearing-in amounted to \u201ccontempt of court\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis oath-taking is illegal and has no [legal] standing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, on behalf of all the opposition members, I demand that the oath should be declared null and void,\u201d he said, adding that the opposition would continue to protest until the SIC was given its due reserved seats.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan highlighted that the PHC had issued a stay order on oath-taking and MNAs on reserved seats could not be sworn in until a final decision was taken in the case.<\/p>\n \u201cAdministering oath before this is the violation of the oath itself and the Constitution,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Responding to Gohar, the NA speaker said that the NA had not received any order or notice from the ECP or the PHC regarding the oath-taking. \u201cI am very clear on this issue that firstly we did not receive any notice and secondly even if we had we would have gone by the book,\u201d Sadiq said.<\/p>\n He then urged Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan to clarify the matter. In his speech, the AGP noted that the decision of the PHC applied directly to the MNAs from the province.<\/p>\n \u201cNo member falling under the jurisdiction of PHC has taken oath today,\u201d Awan said, adding that the PHC\u2019s verdict did not apply to other provinces.<\/p>\n Separately, PTI-backed lawmakers also submitted a resolution in the assembly today affirming support for the women party leaders who were behind bars.<\/p>\n \u201cThis house on International Women\u2019s Day resolves to stand with the rights of women and also demands their legal and constitutional right,\u201d the resolution, seen by Dawn.com<\/em>, said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis house also demands on this auspicious day to release all the innocent political workers including Dr Yasmin Rashid, Sanam Javed, Alia Hamza, Aisha Bhutta, former first lady Bushra Bibi and others,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n Separately, the NA passed a resolution, moved by Sehar Kamran, acknowledging the remarkable contributions of Pakistani women, especially highlighting the legacy of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, in a majority vote. SIC MNAs opposed it.<\/p>\n The NA speaker expressed disappointment that the opposition chose to oppose the resolution without considering its contents, emphasising the importance of transcending politics for such significant matters.<\/p>\n He advised the opposition members to realise the importance of the matter and instead of opposing for the sake of opposition, add its voice for the promotion, protection and well-being of the women of Pakistan.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PTI-backed lawmakers on Friday took strong exception to the oath-taking of National Assembly members on reserved seats, terming it \u201ccontempt of court\u201d and \u201cunconstitutional\u201d. The Imran Khan-led party \u2014 which has found a home in the Sunni Ittehad Council following its victory in the February 8 general elections sans an electoral symbol \u2014 contested that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/03\/082134276985651.jpg?r=213644","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Resolutions on Women\u2019s Day<\/h2>\n