The Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is eligible for seats reserved for women and minorities. Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa led the 13-member bench that delivered this decision.
Despite losing a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, the ruling coalition maintains a simple majority with 210 seats, while the opposition holds 125 seats.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, PTI is poised to secure 65 of the 77 reserved seats across the National Assembly and various provincial assemblies. Of these, 23 seats are in the National Assembly and 54 in the provincial assemblies.
PTI’s Allocation in Provincial Assemblies:
- In Punjab, PTI will likely add 27 seats, including 24 for women and three for minorities.
- In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, PTI is expected to gain 25 seats, with 21 for women and four for minorities.
- In Sindh, PTI will likely secure three seats, two for women and one for minorities.
Background on Reserved Seats Dispute:
The issue of reserved seats gained prominence after over 80 PTI-backed independent candidates won the elections on February 8. The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) approached the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on February 21 to seek the allocation of reserved seats. However, PTI faced a setback when the ECP, citing PTI’s failure to submit its list of candidates, denied the allocation of reserved seats to the SIC in a 4-1 verdict on March 4. The election commission then distributed the seats among other political parties.
After the ECP refused to allocate the seats because PTI failed to submit the necessary list of candidates by the deadline, the PTI-backed SIC appealed to the Supreme Court. This followed an unsuccessful appeal to the Peshawar High Court, which had upheld the ECP’s decision.
