Pakistan’s general election will be held on February 8. (represent)
In a separate legal dispute after the polls, a Pakistani court on Wednesday barred candidates allotted reserved seats in the National Assembly from taking the oath until Thursday, which the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) claimed were meant for should be assigned to it.
A February 8 poll showed that nearly all of the 93 independent election candidates backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, led by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, People have joined the right-wing SIC to gain seats reserved for women and minorities.
There are 336 seats in the lower house of parliament, of which 266 are up for grabs, 60 of which are reserved for women and 10 for minorities. Reserved seats will be allocated to the winning party in proportion to their numbers.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday ruled that the PTI-backed SIC led by 71-year-old Imran Khan is not eligible for reserved seats in parliament allocated to women and minorities and that their seats should be allocated to others political party.
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday issued a stay order preventing the PTI-backed SIC members from taking oath of office and directed the ECP to submit its response by Thursday.
The orders were issued by a two-judge bench of Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Shakeel Ahmad on a petition filed by the SIC.
At the start of today’s hearing, the court questioned whether a motion could be brought in the High Court on the issue of reserved seats.
The petitioner’s lawyer Qazi Anwar cited Article 51 and 106 of the Constitution to stress that the PTI-backed independent candidate had joined the SIC within the three-day deadline.
Justice Ibrahim said this was an accepted fact and no one could ignore it.
Anwar expressed regret over the European Communist Party’s decision to allocate reserved seats to other parties. “It is our right to reserve seats for women and minorities,” he said.
The court notified the Attorney General and the Attorney General to assist the court in the matter and then transferred the case to the Chief Judge of the Primary Health Court to form a larger bench to hear the case.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, initially won 75 general seats in the February 8 polls. Nine independent candidates joined, bringing the number of seats to 84. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) won 54 seats. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) party won 22 MPs, while Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) had seven MPs.
In a bid to disempower Imran Khan-backed candidates, the Muslim League-North and PPP along with four smaller parties formed an alliance after the polls. Its co-candidate Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in on Monday.
Media reports on Wednesday said the PML-N had been allotted 19 seats reserved for women and four seats reserved for minorities, taking its total number to 107. The BJP was allotted 12 seats reserved for minorities and 2 seats reserved for women, taking its total number to 68.
However, after the ECP rejected the PTI-backed reservation of SIC seats, the PML-N further allotted 15 of the remaining 20 seats reserved for women and 1 of the 3 seats reserved for minorities, making it The total number of seats reaches 123 and makes it the largest party in the National Assembly.
Likewise, the BJP’s seats also increased to 73 from 68 earlier as it was allotted 4 more seats reserved for women and 1 seat reserved for minorities. The number of members of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) has increased to 11.
In its ruling, the ECP said the SIC cannot claim the share of seats reserved for women “as the procedural and legal flaws are irremediable and in violation of mandatory provisions of the Constitution”. Reserved seats are allocated to all remaining parties based on strength.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
