ISLAMABAD: A main coalition party in Pakistan’s federal government, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), on Tuesday petitioned the Supreme Court against its earlier judgment that jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party was eligible for extra reserved seats in parliament.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party candidates contested the Feb. 8 general elections as independents after the party was barred from the polls and though these independents won the most seats, the election commission ruled they were not entitled to their share of reserved seats in national and provincial assemblies for women and minorities since these were meant for political parties only. The seats were then allotted to other parties, mostly from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition.
However, the Supreme Court ruled on July 12 that the PTI was entitled to its share of reserved seats, ramping up pressure on weak coalition. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party subsequently filed a review petition against the Supreme Court’s verdict.
“It is respectfully prayed that the review petition may kindly be accepted [...] and the short order by the court may graciously be reviewed and recalled,” the PPP’s petition read. “Further in the interim it is respectfully prayed that operation of the short order [...] passed by the court may be graciously stayed or suspended.”
In the National Assembly of Pakistan, political parties are allocated 70 reserved seats — 60 for women, 10 for non-Muslims — in proportion to the number of seats won in general elections. This completes the National Assembly’s total 336 seats. A simple majority in Pakistan’s parliament is 169 out of 336 seats. Likewise, there are reserved seats in all four provincial assemblies that are distributed on proportional basis among the winning parties.
In a statement sent to media after the July 12 SC ruling, the PTI said 86 PTI-backed returned candidates in the National Assembly and 107 in the Punjab Assembly, 91 in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and 9 in the Sindh Assembly were now “entitled to be counted for the purpose of election to the reserved seats on the basis of proportional representation.”
It is expected that the PTI could get up to 23 reserved seats if the SC judgment is implemented. While announcing the July 12 verdict, the court gave the PTI 15 days to submit its list of candidates entitled for reserved seats to the election commission.
Last week, the election commission said it would enforce the Supreme Court’s verdict on reserved seats but had asked its lawyers to determine if there were areas where it needed the court’s further guidance.
