LAHORE: A petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday challenged former interior minister and MPA-elect Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s failure to take oath in the Punjab Assembly.
Ch Nisar had contested the 2018 general elections from two National Assembly and two provincial seats, losing all but from the PA-10 constituency. He has, however, not taken his oath till date.
The petition, filed by Advocate Nadeem Sarvar on behalf of Advocate Mian Asif Mahmood, prays the court to direct the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to de-notify Nisar for his failure to take oath and also pleaded the court to order the federal and Punjab governments to amend the relevant laws and introduce a time frame for lawmakers-elect to take their oath.
“A time period should also be specified for oath-taking and those who don’t abide by should be declared ineligible,” the petitioner argued.
It may be noted that in this regard, a resolution was also passed by the Punjab Assembly on January 16.
The house recommended the federal government to amend the constitution and election laws to declare a seat vacant in case a member-elect on the seat did not take oath within three months of the election. The resolution was tabled by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) legislator Momina Waheed.
The petition in LHC further claimed that Nisar’s decision to not take his oath was a violation of the law of people’s representation.
“The act of not taking oath amounts to depriving the people of said locality of their fundamental right enshrined in the articles 2-A, 17 and 25 of the constitution because representation is an activity of citizens’ voices, opinions and perspectives ‘present’ in public policy-making process,” the petition notes, adding that “representation only occurs when representative speaks, advocate, symbolise and act on the behalf of the electors in parliament.”
The court has fixed the petition for hearing on Monday.
