PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has been accused of dealing with the murder suspect of his slain adviser on minority affairs, Sardar Soran Singh, ahead of the next Senate elections.
A lawmaker from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Singh joined KP’s provincial assembly on a reserved seat for minorities. He was an active politician and remained visible during most of his party’s anti-government demonstrations.
Singh was shot dead on April 22, 2016, in Buner district. The authorities charged Baldev Kumar, who was second on PTI’s list of minority candidates, for the crime and filed charges against him in an anti-terror court.
Within the next few days, Khattak pledged that his government would do everything to stop Kumar from becoming the provincial assembly’s member and consult legal experts on how to remove his name from the party’s list of non-Muslim candidates.
On Feb. 8, however, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) asked KP’s speaker “to issue order of production of the petitioner to administer oath as member of the provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on minority seat in terms of Article 65 of the Constitution.”
When the speaker gave the order, Singh’s son, Ajay, raised objection and pointed out that the provincial administration should have appealed PHC’s decision in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
He claimed that the chief minister and provincial assembly’s speaker had decided to make a deal with his father’s “murderer” to secure a vote ahead of the Senate elections in March.
Talking to Arab News, the chief minister’s special assistant on law, Arif Yousaf, said it was not PTI but the court that had allowed Kumar to appear in the provincial assembly. “There is no truth in the allegation that the provincial administration had struck a deal with Kumar to get a vote in the Senate elections,” he said.
A lawmaker from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Singh joined KP’s provincial assembly on a reserved seat for minorities. He was an active politician and remained visible during most of his party’s anti-government demonstrations.
Singh was shot dead on April 22, 2016, in Buner district. The authorities charged Baldev Kumar, who was second on PTI’s list of minority candidates, for the crime and filed charges against him in an anti-terror court.
Within the next few days, Khattak pledged that his government would do everything to stop Kumar from becoming the provincial assembly’s member and consult legal experts on how to remove his name from the party’s list of non-Muslim candidates.
On Feb. 8, however, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) asked KP’s speaker “to issue order of production of the petitioner to administer oath as member of the provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on minority seat in terms of Article 65 of the Constitution.”
When the speaker gave the order, Singh’s son, Ajay, raised objection and pointed out that the provincial administration should have appealed PHC’s decision in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
He claimed that the chief minister and provincial assembly’s speaker had decided to make a deal with his father’s “murderer” to secure a vote ahead of the Senate elections in March.
Talking to Arab News, the chief minister’s special assistant on law, Arif Yousaf, said it was not PTI but the court that had allowed Kumar to appear in the provincial assembly. “There is no truth in the allegation that the provincial administration had struck a deal with Kumar to get a vote in the Senate elections,” he said.
