PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday dismissed arrested MPAelect Baldev Kumar`s petition seeking orders for the provincial Assembly`s speaker to issue his production orderfor taking oath of office.

Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mohammad Ghazanfar Khan pronounced its short order on the petition af ter KP Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar filed comments revealing that neither the petitioner nor his parliamentary party had approached him for the issuance of his production order.

The speaker said he had also sought guidance from the Election Commission of Pakistan on how in the absence of any clear provision of law, a member-elect booked in a murder case could be called for taking oath.

He added that the reply of the ECP wasawaited.

Baldev Kumar was arrested last year in connection with the murder of Sardar Soran Singh, the MPA elected on the minorities` reserved seats on the ticket of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

Being on Serial No 2 on the priority list of candidates submitted by the ruling PTI for seats reserved for minorities, the petitioner was declared the returned candidate on the vacantseatby the ECP.

T he respondents in the petition are speaker of the KP Assembly; secretary of the KP Assembly; ECP; provincial election commissioner of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; and KP government through law secretary.

Additional advocate general Qaiser Ali Shah said the speaker in his comments had stated in categorical terms that neither the petitioner had sent him any application for summoning him to the assembly session for taking oath nor his parliamentary party had approachedthe speakerinthatregard.

He added that the petition of Baldev Kumar was premature as he should first approachthe speaker.

Mohib Jan Salarzai, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client was a PTI leader and belonged to minority Hindu community.He added that Sardar Soran Singh was elected MPA on the seat reserved for minorities during the 2013 general elections and was made adviser to the chief minister afterwards but was killed on Apr 22, 2016, with the banned militant outfit, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, accepting responsibility for the killing.

The lawyer claimed that being an untraced case, the local police instead of making efforts to arrest the real culprits implicated his client and arrested him in the case as he was at Serial No 2 on the priority list of candidates for the minorities` seat in the assembly.

Speaker Asad Qaiser in his comments said the superintendent of police (investigation), Buner, had sent a letter to the provincial election commissioner of the ECP revealing that petitioner Baldev Kumar had been arrested in connection with the murder of Sardar Soran Singh as the principal accused in the case.

He said Baldev Kumar had not been taken oath in the Assembly and therefore, he was not a MPA.

The speaker said under Rule 65A of the KP Assembly Procedure and Conduct of Business Rules, 1988, he was empowered to issue production order for an MPA.