Peshawar High Court bars arrest of KP Assembly deputy speaker

Read the original at Dawn ↗
Cite

Shah, W. A. (2026, October 23). Peshawar High Court bars arrest of KP Assembly deputy speaker. Dawn. https://www.dawn.com/news/2039173/peshawar-high-court-bars-arrest-of-kp-assembly-deputy-speaker

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Dawn · collected 2026-10-23 · by Waseem Ahmad Shah

Quick Summary

The Peshawar High Court has barred authorities from arresting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Deputy Speaker Suriya Bibi until November 10 and suspended an order to vacate her official residence. The court's decision, based on a three-page order sheet, cites legal protections for the deputy speaker under provincial law and notes that the governor’s rule proclamation did not explicitly mention speakers or deputy speakers among those losing their offices. Advocate General Sanaullah argued against this interpretation but was overruled by the bench comprising Justices Ijaz Anwar and Muhammad Faheem Wali, which provisionally allowed Bibi to retain her official residence until the next hearing on November 10.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-23, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

On October 23, 2026, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) in Pakistan barred authorities from arresting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Deputy Speaker Suriya Bibi until November 10. The court also suspended an earlier order to vacate her official residence and allowed her continued access to it during this period. This decision came after a petition filed by Bibi’s lawyer, who argued that the deputy speaker should be exempt from arrest or detention under Section 27(2) of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance, which ensures protection for officials like the deputy speaker during their term. The petitioner's lawyer also claimed that police had raided and sealed her residence without reason on October 14, alleging harassment by law enforcement agencies.

Written for “Peshawar High Court Ruling On Deputy Speaker Arrest Ban” on 2026-10-23, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political question, so it has no leaning score. That is an answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political position.
No political leaning scored for article 100866 · logged 2026-10-23

Story

📰 Peshawar High Court Ruling On Deputy Speaker Arrest Ban
Politics · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

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Claims extracted
18
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
17%
3 of 18 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
71/100
Dawn's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-23 · how these are computed

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Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Dawn · 2092 article(s) · 3 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 3 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Waseem Ahmad Shah
4 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 The lawyer also cited Section 27(2) of the act, which provided that the deputy speaker could not be arrested, detained or confined, and that her official residence could not be searched, entered or raided by a law enforcement agency during her term in office.
🔮 Aamir sought directives for the respondents, including the KP IG, the Peshawar capital city police officer (CCPO) and others to immediately take all lawful and effective measures to trace and recover his brother. He also sought that if Afridi was found to be in custody, the PHC direct that he be produced so that the legality of his custody could be examined in accordance with Article 199(1)(b)(i) of the Constitution.
🔮 With Peshawar High Court set to hear today (Tuesday) multiple petitions against imposition of emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan has sought permission of the court to file an amended petition to challenge the resolutions passed by a joint sitting of the Parliament as well as National Assembly and Senate separately endorsing the said move.
🔮 Petitioner’s lawyers say the process initiated by ECP may result in his disqualification PESHAWAR:
Also by Waseem Ahmad Shah
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

Topics

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly PESHAWAR PHC Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance The Peshawar High Court

Subjects

PESHAWAR GPE · 2× Suriya Bibi PERSON · 2× Bibi PERSON · 1× Chitral GPE · 1× Ijaz Anwar PERSON · 1× Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly ORG · 1× Muhammad Faheem Wali PERSON · 1× PHC ORG · 1× Sanaullah PERSON · 1× The Peshawar High Court ORG · 1×

Narrative

He claimed that after governor’s rule was imposed in the province, police raided his client’s official residence “without any reason and justification to harass her and unlawfully arrest her”. He added that at midnight on Oct 14, the respondents and other officials again raided the residence and locked it. The petitioner asked the court to direct the provincial government and the inspector general of police to immediately unseal her residence and restore her access to and possession of the property.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-23
🔮 The lawyer also cited Section 27(2) of the act, which provided that the deputy speaker could not be arrested, detained or confined, and that her official residence could not be searched, entered or raided by a law enforcement agency during her term in office.
2026-10-23 · Dawn
Peshawar High Court bars arrest of KP Assembly deputy speaker · assertive framing

Claims (18 extracted, 3 hedged)

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. asserted
her → restrain → residence
A bench comprising Justices Ijaz Anwar and Muhammad Faheem Wali ordered that the Oct 14 order to vacate her official residence remain suspended. asserted
order → comprise → residence
It also provisionally allowed her to occupy the accommodation until the next hearing. asserted
her → allow → hearing
“The respondents are further restrained from arresting the petitioner till the date fixed,” the bench ruled in its three-page order sheet. asserted
bench → restrain → 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. asserted
court → fix → 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. asserted
who → allow → office
“Apparently, the presidential order does not find mention of the position of speaker/deputy speaker. asserted
order → find → 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. uncertain
it → make → order
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. asserted
accommodation → note → 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. asserted
petitioner → contend → Code
The bench reproduced the proclamation order regarding the cessation of certain categories of the public representatives. asserted
bench → reproduce → representatives
“The chief minister, provincial ministers, advisers, special assistants and the advocate general of the province of KP shall forthwith cease to hold office,” one of its provisions said. asserted
one → cease → provisions
The court also referred to arguments by the petitioner’s counsel, Yasir Khattak, who cited Section 8 of the KP Province Speaker and Deputy Speaker’s (Immunities, Privileges, Salaries and Allowances) Act, 2026. asserted
who → refer → Act
It entitles the speaker and deputy speaker to use official accommodation without paying rent until they are replaced and their substitutes are chosen. asserted
substitutes → entitle → rent
The lawyer also cited Section 27(2) of the act, which provided that the deputy speaker could not be arrested, detained or confined, and that her official residence could not be searched, entered or raided by a law enforcement agency during her term in office. uncertain
residence → cite → office
He claimed that after governor’s rule was imposed in the province, police raided his client’s official residence “without any reason and justification to harass her and unlawfully arrest her”. He added that at midnight on Oct 14, the respondents and other officials again raided the residence and locked it. The petitioner asked the court to direct the provincial government and the inspector general of police to immediately unseal her residence and restore her access to and possession of the property. asserted
petitioner → claim → property
She also sought directions restraining the KP police chief and Peshawar deputy commissioner from raiding her residence or arresting or detaining her under any order issued pursuant to Section 3 of the MPO Ordinance. asserted
She → seek → Ordinance
Following the imposition of governor’s rule, a case was registered against the deputy speaker for allegedly “refusing to return an official vehicle”. uncertain
case → follow → vehicle
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