The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday issued a notification regarding the reserved seats following the June 27 verdict given by the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench.
The top court’s Constitutional Bench accepted review petitions and ruled that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is not entitled to seats reserved for women and minorities in the national and provincial assemblies — providing a lion’s share of the reserved seats to the ruling coalition.
Following the notification, five reserved seats for women in the National Assembly from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were restored by the top electoral body.
Two seats each were allotted to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and one to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).
Eleven reserved seats for women in the National Assembly from Punjab were also restored. 10 seats have been allotted to the ruling PML-N and one to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
The commission restored three seats reserved for minorities in the lower house which were handed over to the PML-N, PPP, and JUI-F.
KP Assembly
As per the notification, 21 reserved seats for women were reinstated in the KP Assembly of which 8 were allocated to JUI-F, six to PML-N, and 5 to PPP. One seat each was also allotted to the PTI Parliamentarians and the Awami National Party (ANP).
Meanwhile, four reserved seats for minorities in the KP Assembly were restored of which two were handed over to the JUI-F, one each to the PML-N and PPP.
Punjab Assembly
The ECP restored 24 reserved seats for women in the Punjab Assembly of which the PML-N got 21 one each by PPP, Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP), and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q).
Three minority seats were restored and two of them were allotted to the PML-N and one to the PPP.
Sindh Assembly
Two reserved seats for women and one for minorities have been reinstated in the Sindh Assembly of which one was allotted to the PPP and another to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).
Furthermore, the ECP also withdrew its notification stating the successful candidates’ affiliation with the Imran Khan-founded party from the general seats in the national and provincial assemblies.
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The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has convened a meeting tomorrow following the Supreme Court verdict on reserved seats.
The commission will discuss the ruling of Supreme Court, said the sources.
The meeting is expected to determine the party affiliation of the PTI-backed assembly members, a decision that will significantly impact the number-game in the parliament.
Earlier, the Supreme Court’s constitutional bench on Friday ruled that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was not entitled to seats reserved for women and minorities in the national and provincial assemblies.
The court, in a 7-3 majority decision, accepted the review petitions, nullifying the July 12 judgment while upholding the decision of the Peshawar High Court.
PTI will now lose its claim to the reserved seats, which will instead be allocated to the ruling coalition.
Following the Supreme Court’s constitutional bench decision on reserved seats, the ruling coalition has increased its strength in the National Assembly.
As a result of the court ruling, PML-N gained 15 additional seats, PPP 4, and JUI-F 3. The National Assembly now has 125 PML-N members, 74 from PPP, and 11 from JUI-F.
With these added seats, the ruling coalition now holds 237 seats in the 336-member house—surpassing the 224 needed for a two-thirds majority.
