Peshawar High Court bars arrest of KP Assembly deputy speaker

Dawn · 23/10/2026، 2:27:45 AM

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has restrained the authorities from arresting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Deputy Speaker Suriya Bibi until Nov 10, while allowing her to retain access to her official residence. A bench comprising Justices Ijaz Anwar and Muhammad Faheem Wali ordered that the Oct 14 order to vacate her official residence remain suspended. It also provisionally allowed her to occupy the accommodation until the next hearing. “The respondents are further restrained from arresting the petitioner till the date fixed,” the bench ruled in its three-page order sheet. The court fixed Nov 10 for the next hearing of Ms Bibi’s petition against the sealing of her official residence and her anticipated arrest under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance. Court also allows Suriya Bibi to retain official residence, suspends order to vacate it The bench observed that the proclamation imposing governor’s rule in the province did not mention the speaker or deputy speaker among the functionaries who ceased to hold office. “Apparently, the presidential order does not find mention of the position of speaker/deputy speaker. Similarly, even the vacation order makes reference to those categories (of ministers and advisers) but it nowhere mentions the position of speaker/deputy speaker, which prima facie suggests that the same is not covered by the proclamation order,” it observed. The bench noted that Advocate Gen­eral Sanaullah had argued that in “view of Federal Government Order-1 of 2026, read with Federal Government Order-2 of 2026 and the Oct 11 proclamation” for an emergency, the government had every authority to have official accommodation vacated by advisers and provincial ministers, including the deputy speaker. He also contended that the petitioner had been named in an FIR registered on behalf of the Chitral deputy commissioner on Oct 12 under Section 406 of the Pakistan Penal Code. The bench reproduced the proclamation order regarding t