Pak’s ruling coalition gets two-thirds majority after allotment of reserved seats

Islamabad, Jul 2 (PTI) Pakistan’s ruling coalition garnered two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, on Wednesday after the allotment of reserved seats following a Supreme Court judgment last week.

The top court on Friday rejected a plea of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), a partner of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), seeking its share of the reserved seats.

Following the controversial ruling, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) distributed the reserved seats to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the opposition Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).

The ECP notified the names of the returned candidates under various categories of reserved seats with immediate effect, distributing 13 seats in the National Assembly to the PML-N, four to the PPP and two to the opposition JUI-F.

After this process, the ruling coalition strength swelled to 233 seats in the National Assembly, achieving a two-thirds majority in the house of 336.

Of the 336 seats in the National Assembly, 266 are directly elected, 60 are reserved for women and 10 for religious minorities.

The ECP also distributed reserved seats in the provincial assemblies. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it allotted 10 seats to the JUI-F, seven to the PML-N, six to the PPP and one each to the PTI parliamentarians and Awami National Party.

The PML-N was given 23 seats in the Punjab Assembly, two for the PPP and one each to the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid and Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party.

In the Sindh Assembly, two seats were given to the PPP and one to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan.

The dispute about the reserved seats was related to the rejection of a plea by the ECP to award the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), which wanted its share in the 70 reserved seats in the National Assembly and another 156 in the four provincial assemblies.

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 matter landed in the Supreme Court which on July 12, 2024 by a majority of eight out of 13 judges awarded the reserved seats to the SIC.

The judgment was given after the SIC had filed a plea challenging the Peshawar High Court decision upholding the ECP’s move to deny it the share in the reserved seats in the assemblies.

However, the ruling had not been implemented by the National Assembly, while the ECP had raised some objections, and review petitions against the order had been filed by the ruling PML-N, the PPP and the ECP.

An 11-members constitutional bench, led by Justice Aminuddin Khan, reversed the early judgment and restored the original judgment of the Peshawar High Court, which meant that the SIC would not get any reserved seat.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) could not contest the February 8 general elections last year as the ECP rejected its intra-party elections and deprived it of the bat symbol for contesting the elections as a party.

Hence it was not eligible to claim the seats reserved for women and minorities that are awarded to the winning parties on the basis of proportional representation.

So its candidates, who had won independently but with the support of PTI, were asked by the PTI leadership to join the SIC to form a parliamentary party for claiming reserved seats.

The joining of PTI lawmakers made the SIC prominent, which otherwise was a dormant entity.

The ECP had rejected the SIC plea for reserved seats on the pretext that it had not contested the elections as a party and only got strength when the PTI-backed independently elected candidates joined its ranks after winning the elections.

Its appeal against the ECP decision in the Peshawar High Court was also turned down in March, 2024, forcing the party to file a challenge in the Supreme Court which on July 12 last year ruled in favour of the SIC and rejected the high court judgment.

However, the situation changed after the top court accepted the review petitions which resulted in awarding the seats to other parties, and the ruling coalition getting two-third majority. PTI SH GSP GSP