PEAHAWAR – An imprisoned minority leader in Pakistan, who is facing trialin the murder case of a Sikh lawmaker, was today administered oath as amember of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly, a day before dissolution of theprovincial legislature.
Baldev Kumar of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) was administeredthe oath on the orders of the Peshawar High Court.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly will be dissolved on May 28 aftercompletion of its mandated period.
Speaker Asaq Qaisar administered the oath to Kumar who is presently in jailfacing murder charges of Sardar Soran Singh.
Singh, a Sikh lawmaker from PTI and the special assistant to the chiefminister, was shot dead in April 2016 in Buner district. He was elected tothe provincial assembly on a minority seat.
After Singh’s murder, Kumar was declared MPA-elect by the ElectionCommission of Pakistan. However, he has been in jail since 2016 with theseat lying vacant.
After taking the oath, Kumar signed the register of the assembly membersand became a member of the house for a day.
The assembly session was called for a day for the passage of resolutionseeking merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) intoKhyber Pakhtunkhwa under the 31st amendment passed by Parliament.