The ruling coalition was handed its two-thirds majority in the National Assembly with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) distributing the reserved seats to the PML-N, PPP and the opposition Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) following the Supreme Court’s verdict.
Last week, the Constitutional Bench overturned the Supreme Court’s earlier judgement in the reserved seats case — effectively taking away reserved seats from the PTI and handing them to their rival parties in the national and provincial legislatures. The decision, handed down by a majority of seven judges, supersedes the July 12, 2024 majority judgement by eight judges, which had declared the PTI eligible for reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the assemblies.
The Constitutional Bench’s decision effectively meant the PTI was no longer a parliamentary party.Acting on the court’s verdict, the ECP issued an order today withdrawing its July 24 and 29 notifications from last year that had declared returned candidates against general seats of the National Assembly and the Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies as returned candidates of the PTI.
In another order today, the ECP notified the names of the returned candidates under various categories of reserved seats with immediate effect, distributing 13 seats to the PML-N in the National Assembly, four to the PPP and two to the opposition JUI-F.
After this process, the ruling coalition achieves a two-thirds majority; in a house of 336, the magic number required to attain a two-thirds majority is 224. The ruling coalition now has 231 seats.
The ECP also distributed reserved seats in the provincial assemblies. In the KP Assembly, 10 seats were given to the JUI-F, seven to the PML-N, six to the PPP and one each to the PTI-Parliamentarians and Awami National Party.
The PML-N was given 23 seats in the Punjab Assembly, two for the PPP and one each to the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid and Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party.In the Sindh Assembly, two seats were given to the PPP and one to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan.
Through its March 25, 2024 order, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) had deprived the Sunni Ittehad Council — the party joined by PTI-backed independents after the Feb 8, 2024, polls — of reserved seats.
