Imran Khan's party wins legal victory as SC rules PTI eligible for reserved seat

In a major legal victory for Pakistan TehreekeInsaf PTI the Supreme Court of Pakistan declared the party eligible for a share of reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies Dawn reportedThe landmark judgement delivered on Friday by a 13member bench in an 85 ruling dealt a significant setback to the coalition governmentThe case was filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council SIC a political party whose PTIbacked candidates joined after the February 8 general election which they were forced to contest as independentsThe PTI led by Imran Khan who has been in jail since August due to criminal cases was initially barred from contesting the elections under its electoral symbol a cricket bat due to alleged electoral law violationsConsequently PTI candidates ran as independents but won 93 seats in the National Assembly outstripping other partiesThe Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz PMLN came second with 75 seats while the Pakistan Peoples Party PPP secured third place with 54 seats Following Khans refusal to join hands with any rival party the PMLN and PPP agreed to form a coalition government with smaller partiesPTIbacked candidates having won as independents later aligned with SIC to form a coalition The Supreme Courts decision on Friday annulled the Peshawar High Courts PHC ruling and declared the ECPs decision null and void citing it as unconstitutionalAccording to Dawn the top court on Friday annulled the decision of the PHC while also declaring the decision of the election regulator null and void terming it against the Constitution of PakistanReacting to the verdict PTI members lauded the top courts decision A post from the PTIs official X account demanded the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja for violating the Constitution of PakistanPTI leader and former KP finance minister Taimur Khan Jhagra congratulated Imran Khan and PTI supporters on the Supreme Courts decisionWe are on the right side of history as difficult as that may be The fight will go on he wrote on X adding that there were serious questions on the malafide intent of the ECPThe reserved seats issue came to the limelight after over 80 Pakistan TehreekeInsaf PTI backed independent candidates emerged victorious in the February 8 electionsThe SIC then approached the ECP on February 21 seeking allocation of reserved seatsHowever the PTI suffered a setback after the electoral body citing the partys failure to submit its list of candidates denied allocating the reserved seats to the SIC via its 41 majority verdict on March 4The election commission distributed the reserved seats for women and minorities among other political partiesThe PTIbacked SIC had approached the court after the ECP refused to allocate the reserved seats due to the partys failure to submit its list of candidates before the deadline The Peshawar High Court PHC upheld the ECPs decision leading the SIC to appeal to the Supreme CourtAccording to the notification in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly the ECP allocated one reserved seat each to Jamiat UlemaiIslam Pakistan Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz PMLN and Pakistan Peoples Party PPPIn Sindh Assembly allocated reserved seats for women to Muttahida Qaumi MovementPakistan MQMP and PPP PPPs Samita Afzal and MQMPs Fouzia Hameed were elected on reserved seatsFurthermore PPPs Sadhu Mal alias Surinder Valasai secured a minority seat in Sindh AssemblyThe ECP allocated three reserved seats for minorities to PMLN PPP and JUIF which were claimed by the Sunni Ittehad Council PMLNs Neelam Meghwar PPPs Ramesh Kumar and JUIFs James Iqbal were elected on the minority seatsSubsequently the PHC ruling allowed the ruling coalition comprising the Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz PMLN Pakistan Peoples Party PPP and other allies to gain a twothirds majority in the National Assembly This decision increased the PMLNs seats to 123 and the PPPs to 73 while the SIC held 82 seatsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever