Imran Khan's party demands fresh allocation of reserved seats in one of Pak's province

Peshawar, Jul 18 (PTI) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has filed a writ petition in the Peshawar High Court, praying to declare PTI-backed independent members of the provincial assembly as that of the party and also to allocate reserved seats afresh on its basis.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), founded by the incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan, is the ruling party in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly and had formed the government after February 2024 general elections.

The Federal government, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), various political parties and relevant institutions have been made respondents in Gandapur's petition filed on Thursday.

The seats reserved for women and minorities are proportionally awarded to the political parties on the basis of their numerical strength in the assemblies.

The chief minister has challenged Section 94 (4) of Election Rules 2017. In his petition, filed through a panel of lawyers, including Qazi Mohammad Anwar, Alam Khan Adenzai and Basheer Wazir, Gandapur maintained that the 13 member bench of the Supreme Court has declared PTI a political entity.

The petitioner claimed that the ECP had misinterpreted a Supreme Court judgment and had declared PTI candidates as independent.

According to the petition, the ECP removed PTI from the definition of a political party based on the absence of an electoral symbol, citing provisions under the Election Rules.

However, the petitioner contends that under the Elections Act, 2017, the definition of a political party does not require possession of an election symbol. The rules cannot override the Act, which is a higher legal authority.

The petition further states that the ECP acted beyond its jurisdiction by declaring PTI candidates as independents.

The petitioner prayed the court to strike down the notification issued on July 4, 2025 by Election Commission of Pakistan whereby reserved seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly had been allocated to political parties having a lesser electoral mandate than the PTI.

Gandapur requested the court to declare as illegal a letter issued to him by the ECP on July 14 for summoning of the assembly session on July 20 for administering oaths to candidates of other political parties notified on reserved seats.

He further sought directives for the ECP to allocate reserved seats to PTI strictly in accordance with the principle of proportional representation, as contemplated under the Constitution and Elections Act, 2017.

The petitioner contended that denial of reserved seats to PTI would create an entirely unrepresented provincial assembly that didn’t reflect the will of the people.

Earlier, the ECP on Tuesday had announced its decision regarding the allocation of reserved seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Assembly. PTI AYZ NPK NPK