The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) reserved a verdict on Monday in a case about the allocation of reserved seats in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly after hearing arguments from all the parties involved.
A five-member bench of the ECP, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, conducted the hearing. The case involved five political parties, focusing on the distribution of reserved seats following the elections in the province.
Representatives from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian (PPPP), Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P) presented their arguments. Key points raised included the criteria for seat allocation, the notification dates and the deadline for candidates to join political parties.
JUI-F lawyer Kamran Murtaza argued that the notification for all reserved seats nationwide could not be withdrawn over one seat in K-P.
PML-N’s counsel, 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 matter should be resolved through a toss as per legal provisions.
Murtaza added that at the time of allocation, JUI-F had seven eligible candidates while PML-N had six. He further added that Tariq Awan, who won as an independent, did not join the 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 addressed after the resolution of the dispute between PML-N and JUI-F. ANP’s counsel maintained that the seat allocation should reflect the situation immediately after the general elections.
PTI counsel raised concerns that two of their representatives had been counted as one in the allocation process, stressing 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, warning that including by-elections in the calculations could further complicate the issue.
During the hearing, ECP member Nisar Durrani asked whether a party’s reserved seats should be reduced if it loses seats in subsequent by-elections. PTI’s counsel responded that such a reduction would not be valid. After hearing all arguments, the ECP reserved its judgment.
PHC ruling
On July 9, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) annulled the distribution of reserved seats in the K-P Assembly and ordered the ECP to redistribute the seats after hearing the parties. A two-member bench, comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal, announced the reserved judgment on the petition of the PML-N against the distribution of reserved seats.
In its two-page judgment, it was reported, the court declared null and void both the announcements of the ECP regarding the allocation of reserved seats for women and minorities. It said the ECP should reallocate these seats after hearing all candidates and political parties within 10 days.
The report added that the court had delayed the oath-taking of the lawmakers on the reserved seats until the ECP decision. The court also ruled that ECP’s deadline for the independent candidates to join any political party in the provincial assembly by February 22, 2024, was unconstitutional.
The report added that the K-P Assembly comprises 124 lawmakers – 99 elected on general seats, besides 21 reserved seats for women and four reserved seats for non-Muslims. The reserved seats are allocated only to the political parties in the house based on their strength.
After the general elections on February 8, 2024, the ECP allocated the reserved seats to the political parties, excluding the independents, who were PTI-backed, and formed a majority in the house. However, the matter dragged on for over a year in the courts, until it was settled in the Supreme Court recently.
The PHC ruling had directed the ECP to redistribute these seats after hearing the PML-N, the JUI-F, the PPP, the ANP and the PTI-Parliamentarians.
