PESHAWAR
\nThe Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor Faisal Karim Kundi to administer the oath to Chief Minister-elect Sohail Afridi today (Wednesday) by 4:00 PM.
\nThe court ruled that if the governor failed to do so, KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati was authorized to administer the oath in his place.
\nThe decision, announced by a bench led by Chief Justice SM Attique Shah, came in response to a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) seeking immediate facilitation of the oath-taking ceremony after procedural delays raised constitutional concerns.
\nDuring Tuesday\u2019s hearing, the Additional Attorney General informed the court that governor Kundi was currently out of the province on an official visit and was expected to return by 2:00 PM on Wednesday, just two hours before the court\u2019s set deadline for the oath ceremony.
\nChief Justice Peshawar High Court Shah asked directly whether the governor had agreed to administer the oath. The Additional Attorney General responded that the governor had summoned outgoing Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur for discussions regarding the acceptance of his resignation and that a final decision on the oath would be made upon the governor\u2019s return.
\nGovernor Kundi had also nominated Advocate Amir Javed to argue on his behalf. Javed maintained that Gandapur would continue discharging duties as chief minister until a new CM formally assumed office.
\nHowever, CJ Shah disagreed with this interpretation, stating, \u201cThat situation would only apply if no election had taken place. But in this case, the election has already been held, and other political parties also submitted nomination papers.\u201d
\nIt may be pertinent to mention here that the legitimacy of the new CM\u2019s election became contentious after governor Kundi refused to accept Gandapur\u2019s resignation, citing discrepancies in his signature.
\nPTI maintained that the governor\u2019s consent was not constitutionally required for a CM\u2019s resignation to take effect.
\nSenior lawyer and Secretary General of PTI Salman Akram Raja, representing the petitioner, argued that Gandapur had already acknowledged his resignation in the provincial assembly and was the first to vote in favor of Sohail Afridi during the election.
\n\u201cOnce Gandapur himself admitted to resigning, the issue of signature authenticity is irrelevant,\u201d Raja told the court.
\nEarlier a day, PTI founding chairman\u2019s pick Sohail Afridi was elected unopposed as the new chief minister on Monday, receiving 90 votes following an opposition boycott. Rival candidates, JUI-F\u2019s Maulana Lutfur Rehman, PML-N\u2019s Sardar Shahjehan Yousaf, and PPP\u2019s Arbab Zarak Khan, received no votes as their parties walked out of the assembly session.
\nPTI argued that the election and resignation both fulfilled constitutional requirements, and the delay in the oath-taking ceremony was an undue obstruction of the democratic process.
\nWith the PHC now directing a definitive timeline, the focus shifts to whether KP governor Kundi will comply with the order or defer the responsibility to the Speaker of the Assembly. PTI leaders, including KP President Junaid Akbar and former National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, have welcomed the court\u2019s intervention, calling it a \u201cvictory for the Constitution and the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PESHAWAR The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor Faisal Karim Kundi to administer the oath to Chief Minister-elect Sohail Afridi today (Wednesday) by 4:00 PM. The court ruled that if the governor failed to do so, KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati was authorized to administer the oath in his place. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":88179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88180,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88168\/revisions\/88180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}