PESHAWAR: Two separate constitutional petitions were filed in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) challenging the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to postpone the Senate by-election in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following the disqualification of Murad Saeed.
The petitions have named the ECP, Member of Provincial Assembly Jalal Khan, and Murad Saeed as respondents.One petition was filed by the Speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Babar Saleem Swati through lawyer Bashir Khan Wazir, while the other was submitted by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate Irfan Saleem through lawyer Ali Gohar Durrani.
The petitioners argued that following the disqualification of Murad Saeed, the Senate seat had fallen vacant and, under Article 224(5) of the Constitution, a by-election must be held within 30 days.
According to the petitions, the ECP had issued the election schedule on April 23 after declaring the seat vacant on March 25. However, on April 21, the ECP suspended the by-election on a plea filed by Jalal Khan, who the petitioners claimed, was not an aggrieved party.
They stated that Murad Saeed himself had not raised any objection.The petitions contended that the ECP did not have the authority to suspend the Senate by-election once the schedule had been issued. They argued that the suspension violated constitutional provisions, including Articles 4, 10-A, and 25.
