islamabad, pakistan —This is the latest setback for former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
On Monday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) declared that the PTI-backed Sunni Ittihad Council (SIC) cannot claim the allotted reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies.
The PTI was unable to contest the recent elections due to a ban on electoral symbols and directed its candidates to join right-wing secular parties to increase its numerical strength in parliament.
In a 22-page judgment issued on Monday, the five-member electoral body said the SIC had not yet decided whether to nominate preliminary candidates by the ECP deadline of February 22, two weeks after the February 8 elections. It was decided 4-1 that the party had not submitted a list of political parties.
There are a total of 70 reserved seats in Pakistan's parliament, which are distributed among political parties based on their performance in general elections. Similarly, the four state legislatures have a total of 149 reserved seats, which are distributed similarly.
The majority of these reserved seats have already been allocated, and approximately 77 seats remain vacant at this time.
The PTI criticized the ECP's verdict, calling it an attack on democracy.
“This is the final assault on the heart of democracy,” PTI senator Ali Zafar and a senior party lawyer said in a speech in the Senate (upper house) on Monday after the decision was announced.
The ECP's decision opens the door to a lengthy legal battle, as PTI has announced it will challenge the decision in a higher court.
However, if the party is unable to overturn the bill, its position in the lower house could deteriorate further, with the ruling party potentially gaining a two-thirds majority in the 336-member parliament.
What is reserved seating? Why is it important?
Pakistan's parliamentary elections will be held with 266 seats. However, there will be an additional 70 reserved seats (60 for women and 10 for ethnic minorities), for a total of 336 seats.
A total of 169 seats are needed to form a government with a simple majority. However, he needs a two-thirds majority, or 224 votes, to amend the constitution.
Reserved seats are allocated only to political parties that win seats in the National Assembly, and are distributed based on a proportional representation system after a general election. Similarly, reserved seats in local councils are allocated based on the proportional performance of political parties.
According to the regulations, political parties participating in the polls must submit a list of candidates for designated seats before the elections, according to the schedule specified by the ECP. However, if a party outperforms after the polls and needs to submit additional names for preliminary candidates, they must do so within two weeks.
Independent members must declare their party affiliation in parliament within three days of announcing their victory.
The parties they join will receive an increased number of designated seats depending on the number of independent participants.
In parliament, the ECP has already allocated at least 40 of the 60 seats reserved for women to various political parties. Similarly, seven of the 10 seats reserved for the minority in the House of Representatives have already been allocated. The remaining rooms are currently vacant.
What happened in this election?
In the recent general elections held on February 8, PTI fielded candidates as independents, forcing them to fight without the party's symbol, a cricket bat, in violation of election regulations.
Despite facing nearly two years of nationwide repression, with its leader, former Prime Minister Imran Khan, imprisoned since August last year and candidates unable to campaign freely, the PTI has no candidates in 93 seats. and remains the single largest block.
The party claims widespread collusion and “stolen mandates” across the country, while rivals Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) each claim 75 They won 54 seats and managed to unite a ruling coalition. , in coalition with other smaller parties.
Despite winning the most seats, the PTI leadership, on Imran Khan's orders, did not form a government with any major political party, instead joining forces with the fringe right-wing religious party SIC to hold the reservation. He insisted. seat.
Further complicating matters was the fact that the SIC did not participate in the general election despite being a registered political party. Its leader, Sahibzada Hamid Raza, chose to contest elections independently and won a seat from the city of Faisalabad in Punjab province.
What does the ECP judgment say?
In its verdict, the ECP said the SIC was not entitled to claim reserved seats due to “violation of the legal requirement to submit party lists for reserved seats”.
He also said that there are currently 23 seats vacant in the National Assembly. — There will be “no remaining” vacant seats, which will be distributed to other parties based on the seats they win.
The commission criticized the SIC, reminding that the party had failed to submit a list of candidates despite being given a specific deadline.
“All political parties should be aware of the potential consequences they may face in the future when deciding on important measures on party issues that are required under the law,” the ECP said.
What are the consequences of ECP decisions?
On March 3, Shehbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) was elected as the country's new prime minister with 201 votes in parliament. PTI leader Omar Ayub Khan, backed by the SIC, managed to secure 92 votes.
Sharif's PMLN will be the biggest beneficiary of the ECP's decision, as will the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which won 75, 54 and 17 seats respectively in the general election. .
If PTI's legal challenge fails to save them, the ruling party is certain to cross 224, the magic number needed to win a two-thirds majority in parliament.
However, if the PTI succeeds in overturning the ECP's decision, it can hope to win an additional 23 seats in parliament, in addition to additional seats in other provincial assemblies where it has performed well so far. If that happens, the ruling coalition's approval rating may remain at just under two-thirds.
What is the legal community thinking and what will it do next?
The ECP's decision has been widely criticized by lawyers, with many calling the order a “travesty” and even “unconstitutional.”
Constitutional law expert Asad Rahim said the ECP's ruling was in line with the party's previous decisions, which it said disenfranchised Pakistanis.
A Lahore-based lawyer told Al Jazeera: “The ECP's ban on the largest political party's participation was based on a precedent that explicitly prohibited minor technicalities.'' “But even more destructive to the democratic mission is the division of remaining seats among smaller parties.”
Another legal expert, Rida Hossain, also questioned the decision to distribute unallocated seats to other smaller parties. She argued that there is no law or constitutional provision that authorizes this “unconscionable” distribution.
“The entire constitutional and legal framework provides that political parties should win designated seats through a system of proportional representation. That is completely undemocratic,” Hossain told Al Jazeera.
Islamabad-based lawyer Salar Khan also pointed out that the ECP's decision lacked a “convincing justification” for allocating unallocated seats to other parties.
“However, there is a good chance that the coalition will have a two-thirds majority in parliament as a result of this,” he told Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, lawyer Mian Dawood argued that the SIC was clearly at fault for failing to submit the list on time.
“This is the first time that a political party like the SIC has not submitted a list of reserved seats as required by law, but is required to do so on grounds of morality and necessity. ” Dawood told Al Jazeera.
Constitutional expert and lawyer Abdul Moiz Jafferi termed the ECP verdict as another “technical knockout” suffered by the PTI.
“Perhaps the PTI itself opened the door to this by not taking a stand against the ECP regarding its list of reserved seats and by claiming that it is still a political party, albeit without a symbol,” he told Al Jazeera. I guess it was,” he said.
Lawyers also expressed pessimism that PTI would receive a favorable ruling from a higher court.
“PTI appears to have decided to challenge this decision in the Supreme Court. Of course, it is the Supreme Court's narrow interpretation of the electoral law that got them here in the first place,” Khan said, referring to the Supreme Court's ruling. He said while touching on. In January this year, it supported the ECP's decision to strip the party of its cricket bat symbol.
