PESH AWAR: In a major development, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to call a sitting of the provincial assembly next Sunday.

Official sources hint at the possibility of the swearing-in of the lawmakers, elected on seats reserved for women and non-Muslims, during the July 20 session.

On June 27, the speaker of the provincial assembly prorogued a session through a back-dated notification in what sourcescalled a purported attempt to delay the oath-taking of the MPAs in question following the verdict of the Supreme Court`s Constitutional Bench.

When contacted, provincial law parliamentary affairs minister Aftab Alam Afridi confirmed the development and insisted that the sitting was being called in connection with the Senate polls scheduled for July 21.

He said that the chief minister would have forwarded the summary for the session to the governor.

When asked about the possible agenda items, the minister said it was the speaker to decide the items to be taken up by the house.

He supported the longawaited swearing-in of the MPAs elected on reserved seats, saying it must be done.

The opposition in the provin-cial assembly claims that the PTI government has no option but to ensure the oath-taking of MPAs-elect.

PPP member Ahmad Karim Kundi told Dawn that if the lawmakers didn`t take oath on Sunday, the Senate elections would be delayed.

`I don`t think they [the government] will refuse to administer oaths of the MPAs-elect.

However, if they refuse, the Senate polls will be put off,` he insisted.

When contacted, Governor Faisal Karim Kundi said he hadn`t received any summary from the chief minister for convening the assembly`s sitting.

On June 25, the KP Assembly approved Rs240 billion supplementary budget for the financial year 2024-25 and all the demands for grants wereapproved by the house without any discussion and the sitting was adjourned for July 1.

On June 27, the Constitutional Bench overturned the Supreme Court`s earlier judgement in the reserved seats case, effectively taking away reserved seats from Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and handing them over to their rival parties in national and provincial assemblies.

The decision, handed down by a majority of seven judges, supersedes the July 12, 2024, majority judgement by eight judges, which had declared PTI eligible for reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the assemblies.

Soon after the decision by constitutional bench, the sitting of KP Assembly, which after a budget sitting on June 25, was adjourned for July 1, was prorogued on June 27,and thattoothrough a backdated notification of June 26 which, sources claimed, was an attempt to delay the oath-taking of the lawmakers-elect on seats reserved for women and minority following the apex court`s constitutional bench verdict.

Meanwhile, a Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday put off until today (Thursday) the hearing into a petition seeking orders for the provincial assembly`s speaker and deputy speaker to administer oaths to the lawmakers elected on reserved seats.

The adjournment came from a bench consisting of Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Farah Jamshed after a brief hearing into thepetition jointly filed by seven Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MPAs elected onthe seatsreservedfor women and non-Muslims.