Court Halts Reserved Seats as PTI-P Challenges ECP Decision
A two-judge bench of the Peshawar High Court — Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Dr. Khurshid Iqbal — listened to a case filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P). They were challenging a decision made by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) about the distribution of reserved seats.
PTI-P’s lawyer, Advocate Sultan Muhammad Khan, said the ECP made a mistake. He argued that PTI-P should have received two reserved seats in the provincial assembly. However, the ECP gave them only one seat for women, and none for minorities. He said they also deserved one minority seat.
Justice Arshad Ali noted that even though PTI-P is running the provincial government, it is still not getting the reserved seats it deserves.
The court decided to stop the newly elected members in reserved seats from taking the oath until the next hearing. The court also sent notices to the ECP and postponed the case.
In another case, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had recently rejected a request from the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), a party supported by the original PTI. The SIC wanted reserved seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies based on the general seats they won. But the Supreme Court said no.
The bench, led by Justice Aminuddin Khan, cancelled an earlier decision of the top court. It restored the Peshawar High Court’s ruling, which said that reserved seats should go to other parties, not SIC.
This decision means that:
8 women from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will return to the National Assembly,
11 women from Punjab will take seats in the Punjab Assembly,
And 3 minority members will also get seats.
As a result of this ruling:
The PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) got 14 reserved seats,
The PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) got 5 seats, and
The JUI-F (Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl) got 3 seats in the National Assembly.
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