Pakistan’s highest court directed the country’s election body on Friday to allocate legislative reserved seats to the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party led by former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Following the Feb. 8 general elections, more than 220 reserved seats for women and minorities in Parliament and provincial assemblies had been allocated to the ruling alliance.
Among these, the election commission assigned 70 seats in Parliament to the Pakistan Muslim League, the Pakistan People’s Party, and other allies in the ruling coalition.
The PTI did not take part in the general elections as a party, and its candidates joined the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) after it was stripped of its election symbol “cricket bat” by the election commission.
PTI-backed candidates had won over 90 seats during the elections.
However, the elections body did not allow the reserved seats to the SIC “due to having non-curable legal defects and violation of a mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats.”
But the Pakistan Supreme Court gave the majority verdict with eight judges in favor of overturning the election body’s order, against five of the 13-judge bench.
The Peshawar High Court had validated the election body’s decision.
The reserved seats, 70 in Parliament and 156 in four provincial assemblies are allotted to political parties in proportion to their victory in the general election.
The top court’s judgment came as a major boost to Imran Khan’s party, which has been in jail since last August.
The issue of reserved seats came up after PTI candidates were not accepted as party candidates by the election commission after the bat symbol was taken away by Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa over issues in holding intra-PTI party elections.
The top court directed the election body to complete the fresh allotment process within 15 days.
“Withdrawal of election symbol cannot disqualify a political party from elections,” the court stressed in its verdict. “PTI was and is a political party.”
