ISLAMABAD: Following the Supreme Court’s (SC) verdict on reserved seats, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is set to become the majority party in the National Assembly.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan overturned the denial of reserved seats to the PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council.
As a result of the SC’s decision, the ruling coalition has lost its two-thirds majority in the lower house of Parliament (NA), although they still maintain a simple majority with 210 seats. The opposition will hold 125 seats.
Previously, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had allotted reserved seats to other parties in the assemblies.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was allotted 14 seats, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) 5, and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) was given three reserved seats in the National Assembly.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, JUI-F was allotted 10 seats, while PML-N and PPP each received 7 seats, and ANP got 1 seat.
In Punjab, PML-N secured 23 seats, PPP 2, and both PML-Q and the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party received 1 seat each.
In the Sindh Assembly, PPP received two reserved seats, and MQM was given one seat by the ECP.
The issue of reserved seats came to light after over 80 PTI-backed independent candidates emerged victorious in the February 8 elections. The SIC then approached the ECP on February 21, seeking the allocation of reserved seats.
However, PTI faced a setback when the electoral body, citing the party’s failure to submit its list of candidates, denied allocating the reserved seats to the SIC via a 4-1 majority verdict on March 4. The ECP distributed the seats for women and minorities among other political parties.
The PTI-backed SIC then approached the court after the ECP refused to allocate the seats due to the party’s failure to submit its list of candidates before the deadline. The Peshawar High Court (PHC) upheld the ECP’s decision, leading the SIC to appeal to the Supreme Court.
