The Pakistan Electoral Commission (ECP) reserved a verdict on Monday in a case on the allocation of seats reserved in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assembly after listening to arguments of all the parties involved.
A bank of five ECP members, headed by the electoral chief commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, made the audience. The case involved five political parties, focusing on the distribution of seats reserved after the elections in the province.
Representatives of the Pakistan-Nawaz Muslim League (PML-N), Jamiat Ulema-E-Islam (JUI-F), parliamentarians of the Peoples Party of Pakistan (PPPP), the National Awami Party (ANP) and Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf Parliatian (PTI-P) presented their arguments. The key points raised included the criteria for the allocation of seats, the notification dates and the deadline for the candidates to join the political parties.
Jui-F’s lawyer Kamran Murtaza, argued that notification for all seats reserved throughout the country could not withdraw on a KP seat.
PML-N’s lawyer, Aamir Javed, asked how it was that both PML-N and Jui-F had the same number of general seats, seven each, but Jui-F received 10 reserved seats, while PML-N only obtained eight. He said the matter must be resolved through a launch according to the legal provisions.
Murtaza added that at the time of allocation, Jui-F had seven eligible candidates, while PML-N had six. In addition, he added that Tariq Awan, who won as Independent, did not join the PML-N within the three-day period required after the elections.
Meanwhile, PPPP’s lawyer, Nayyar Bukhari, emphasized that the case of his party was different and should be addressed after the resolution of the PML-N and Jui-F dispute. The ANP lawyer said the seat allocation must reflect the situation immediately after the general elections.
PTI’s lawyer raised the concern that two of his representatives had been counted as one in the allocation process, which emphasized that the reserved seats must be correlated directly with the general seats and must be distributed accordingly. He stressed the importance of establishing a clear cutting date, warning that including partial elections in calculations could further complicate the problem.
During the audience, the ECP member, Nisar Durrani, asked if the reserved seats of a part should be reduced if it loses seats in the subsequent partial elections. PTI’s lawyer replied that such reduction would not be valid. After listening to all the arguments, the ECP reserved its judgment.
PHC runner
On July 9, the Superior Court of Peshawar (PHC) annulled the distribution of seats reserved in the KP assembly and ordered the ECP to redistribute the seats after listening to the parties. A bank of two members, comprised of Judge Syed Arshad Ali and Judge Dr. Khurshid Iqbal, announced the reserved sentence on the request of the PML-N against the distribution of reserved seats.
In its two -page judgment, the court declared void and annulled both ECP ads regarding the allocation of seats reserved for women and minorities. He said the ECP should reassign these seats after listening to all candidates and political parties within 10 days.
The report added that the court had delayed the oath of legislators in the seats reserved until the ECP decision. The Court also ruled that the deadline of the ECP so that independent candidates joined any political party in the Provincial Assembly before February 22, 2024 was unconstitutional.
The report added that the KP Assembly includes 124 legislators: 99 chosen in general seats, in addition to 21 seats reserved for women and four seats reserved for non -Muslims. The reserved seats are assigned only to political parties in the Chamber depending on their strength.
After the general elections of February 8, 2024, the ECP assigned the seats reserved for political parties, excluding the independents, which were backed by PTI and formed the majority in the house. However, the matter lasted for more than a year in court, until it was recently resolved in the Supreme Court.
The PHC failure had ordered the ECP to redistribute these seats after listening to the PML-N, the JUI-F, the PPP, the ANP and the PTI-Parliataries.
