Pak lawmaker accused of killing Sikh prevented from taking oath

PESHAWAR: Opposition and treasury members of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly on Tuesday prevented a Hindu lawmaker from taking oath accusing him of murdering a Sikh legislator in 2016.

Member of the provincial assembly-elect Baldev Kumar, who is in jail in the murder case of Sikh lawmaker Sardar Soran Singh, was allowed to be brought from prison for the oath-taking ceremony in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly on the direction of the Peshawar high court.

But when Kumar entered the provincial assembly hall, the opposition members protested against the speaker’s decision to allow him to take the oath of member of the provincial assembly. The treasury members also joined the opposition’s protest and warned the speaker that they would walk out of the session, if Kumar was allowed to take oath.

Arbab Jehandad Khan, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf member of the provincial assembly, threw his shoe at Kumar, which landed close to him, while some other members of the party threw copies of the assembly agenda towards Kumar. The police then shifted Kumar to Peshawar jail without taking the oath, while the speaker adjourned the session till Friday amid chaos and walkout by the opposition and treasury members.

Singh, a lawmaker from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, was shot dead in 2016 in Buner district. Singh was elected to the assembly on a minority seat. His son Ajay on Sunday appealed the government not to bring the “killer” of his father in the provincial assembly for obtaining his vote for Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf senate candidate in the upcoming elections due for March 3. Kumar, second in the list of the party’s candidates for a reserved seat for minorities, has been facing trial in the case.