The Election Commission in Pakistan (ECP) on Monday reserved a judgment in a case of awarding reserved seats in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assembly after hearing arguments from all parties involved.
A five-member bench of ECP, led by the Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, conducted the consultation. The case involved five political parties focusing on the distribution of reserved seats after the election in the province.
Representatives from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamat Disadvanta-E-Islam (Jui-F), Pakistan Peoples Party Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Tehreek-In-Insaf Parliament (PTI-P) presented their arguments. The most important points that were raised included the criteria for seat allocation, the notification dates and the deadline for candidates to join political parties.
Jui-F-lawyer Kamran Murtaza claimed that the message for all reserved seats nationwide could not be withdrawn over a seat in KP.
PML-N’s advice, Aamir Javed, asked how was it 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 got only eight. He said the case should be resolved through a throw under statutory provisions.
Murtaza added that at the time of award, Jui-F had seven eligible candidates, while PML-N had six. He further added that Tariq Awan, who won as independent, did not join PML-N within the required three-day period after the election.
Meanwhile, PPPP’s lawyer, Nayyar Bukhari, emphasized that his party’s case was different and should be dealt with after the decision on the dispute between PML-N and JUI-F. APS lawyer maintained that the seat allocation should reflect the situation immediately after the parliamentary elections.
The PTI advisor raised concern that two of their representatives were spoken as one in the allocation process, emphasizing that reserved seats should directly correlate with general seats and must be distributed accordingly. He highlighted the importance of establishing a clear cut -off date that warned that including elections in the calculations could further complicate the problem.
During the consultation, ECP member Nisar Durrani asked if a party’s reserved seats should be reduced if it loses seats in subsequent elections. PTI’s lawyer replied that such a reduction would not be valid. After hearing all arguments reserved for the ECP its judgment.
PHC decision
On July 9, Peshawar High Court (PHC) canceled the distribution of reserved seats in the KP assembly and ordered the ECP to redistribute the seats after hearing the parties. A bench with two members consisting of justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Dr. Khurshid Iqbal, announced the reserved judgment of the petition from PML-N against the distribution of reserved seats.
In his two-page verdict, it was reported, the court declared invalid, and canceled both the ECP notifications on the allocation of reserved seats to women and minorities. It said ECP should redistribute these seats after hearing all candidates and political parties within 10 days.
The report added that the court had delayed oath on the legislators in the reserved seats until the ECP decision. The court also stated that the ECP’s deadline for the independent candidates to join any political party in the provincial assembly before February 22, 2024, was constitutional.
The report added that the KP assembly includes 124 legislators-99 selected in general seats, in addition to 21 reserved seats for women and four reserved seats for non-Muslims. The reserved seats are only assigned to the political parties in the house based on their strength.
Following the parliamentary elections on February 8, 2024, the ECP awarded the reserved seats to the political parties, excluding the independents who were PTI supported, and formed a majority in parliament. However, the case pulled on for over a year in the courts until it was recently settled in the Supreme Court.
The PHC decision had ordered ECP to redistribute these seats after hearing PML-N, JUI-F, PPP, ANP and PTI parliamentarians.
