Pakistan SC suspends Peshawar HC order denying reserved seats to Imran-backed party - Times of India

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Supreme Court suspended on Monday a high court verdict that a political party aligned with candidates backed by incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan was not eligible for

reserved seats

for women and minorities in the national and provincial legislatures.

Since the Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was barred by the top court from contesting the Feb 8 elections under its traditional electoral symbol of a cricket bat on technical grounds, the party had subsequently struck an alliance with another party,

Sunni Ittehad Council

(SIC), in an attempt to secure reserved seats in parliament.

Under Pakistan's election rules, political parties are allotted reserved seats — (there are 60 for women and 10 for minorities in the National Assembly) — in proportion to the number of parliamentary seats they win in the election. This completes the NA's total strength of 336 seats.

In March, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had ruled that SIC was not eligible for reserved seats and decided to distribute the seats among other parliamentary parties, with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) becoming major beneficiaries. The verdict was rejected by PTI as unconstitutional and the alliance had filed a plea against the electoral watchdog's decision in the Peshawar HC, but it rejected the appeal.

In response, SIC moved the Supreme Court last month urging it to allot the party the reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies and set aside the Peshawar HC ruling.

Accepting SIC's appeal for a hearing, the apex court clarified that the Peshawar HC order upholding ECP's decision was suspended to the extent of the remaining reserved seats distributed among other parties.

After losing the extra reserved seats, PM Shehbaz Sharif's coalition government had lost its two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.