ECP suspends reserved seats in NA & four provincial assemblies

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) suspended all reserved seats distributed among other political parties in the National Assembly (NA) as well as in four provincial assemblies of the country, here on Monday.

According to the ECP’s notification, the membership of three members of the National Assembly (MNAs) reaching the assembly on minority seats was suspended.

Similarly, the membership of 21 members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (MPAs) was also suspended.

ECP distributed reserved seats

The ECP distributed the reserved seats for women and minorities among other political parties.

In the KP Assembly – according to a notification, the ECP allocated one reserved seat each to Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

In Sindh Assembly – allocated reserved seat for women to Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and PPP. PPP’s Samita Afzal and MQM-P’s Fouzia Hameed elected on reserved seats.

Furthermore, PPP’s Sadhu Mal alias Surinder Valasai secured minority seat in Sindh Assembly.

The ECP allocated three reserved seats for minorities to PML-N, PPP and JUI-F – which were claimed by Sunni Ittehad Council. PML-N’s Neelam Meghwar, PPP’s Ramesh Kumar and JUI-F’s James Iqbal were elected on the minority seats.

Sunni Ittehad Council reserved seats

PTI candidates contested the elections as independents after the Supreme Court upheld the election supervisor’s decision, considering its intra-party polls “unconstitutional” and revoked its claim on the electoral symbol of ‘bat’.

As per the Constitution, the reserved seats are allocated to the political parties on the basis of the number of their lawmakers elected on the general seats.

For their allocation, the ECP had already received the priority list of candidates from the parties before the Feb 8 polls.

The situation this year is different from the previous elections as the largest group of lawmakers are independents, who cannot have the reserved seats.

There are a total of 346 reserved seats for women – 60 in the NA and 66, 29, 26, and 11 in the provincial legislatures of Punjab, Sindh, K-P, and Balochistan.

Similarly, there are 10 reserved seats for minorities in the lower house. Besides, eight, nine and three reserved seats for minorities in the Punjab Sindh, and Balochistan assemblies respectively.

Supreme Court suspended PHC order

Last Monday, the Supreme Court (SC) had suspended the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) order in which it had upheld the ECP’s decision of denying reserved seats to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) in the National as well as in the provincial assemblies.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, and including Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah, took up an SIC appeal against the PHC’s order.

On March 14, the PHC had rejected petitions filed by the SIC, seeking reserved seats for women and minorities.

In March, a five-member bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, had rejected the SIC’s petition seeking the allocation of reserved seats.

The ECP announced the verdict with a 4-1 majority, saying the SIC was not entitled to reserved seats.

In its decision, the electoral body said the SIC is not entitled to claim quota for reserved seats due to having “non-curable legal defects and violation of a mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats which is the requirement of the law”

“The seats in the National Assembly shall not remain vacant and will be allotted by proportional representation process of political parties based on seats won by political parties,” the order said.