ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday stayed the apex court order that a political party aligned with candidates supported by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan cannot run as a candidate. reserved seats for women and minorities in national and state legislatures.
The party had later formed an alliance with another party as the Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was barred by the high court from contesting the February 8 elections under the traditional election symbol of a cricket bat on technical grounds. Sunni Alliance Council (SIC), with the aim of securing reserved seats in parliament.
According to Pakistan’s election rules, political parties are allocated reserved seats in proportion to the number of parliamentary seats they won in the election (there are 60 for women in the National Assembly and 10 for minorities). This completes NA’s total strength of 336 seats.
In March, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had ruled that the SIC was not eligible for reserved seats and decided to distribute the seats among the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party along with other parties in the parliament. (PPP) are becoming major beneficiaries. The decision was rejected by PTI as unconstitutional and the alliance filed an appeal against the election observer’s decision in the Peshawar HC, but it rejected the appeal.
In response, the SIC approached the Supreme Court last month, urging the party to allocate reserved seats in the national and state assemblies and set aside the Peshawar HC order.
Accepting SIC’s plea for hearing, the apex court declared that the Peshawar HC order upholding the ECP’s decision was stayed to the extent of the remaining reserved seats distributed among other parties.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition government had lost its two-thirds majority in the National Assembly after losing extra reserved seats.