ECP meeting concludes without decision on reserved seats, KP Senate elections

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday concluded its meeting without deciding on the allocation of reserved seats and Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), ARY News reported.

According to details, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja presided over the meeting that failed to yield any concrete results, the sources said.

The ECP meeting focused on the allocation of reserved seats and the upcoming Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). A briefing was provided to the commission on the preparations for the KP Senate elections.

The meeting also discussed the allocation of reserved seats, with members of the Election Commission, the Secretary, and relevant officials in attendance.

The ECP will reconvene tomorrow to continue discussions on the matter.

They added that the ECP’s another meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday under the chairmanship of CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja.

Reserved seats issue

The issue came to limelight after over 80 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed independent candidates emerged victorious in the February 8 elections.

The SIC then approached the ECP on February 21 seeking allocation of reserved seats.

However, the PTI suffered a setback after the electoral body, citing the party’s failure to submit its list of candidates, denied allocating the reserved seats to the SIC via its 4-1 majority verdict on March 4.

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

The PTI-backed SIC had approached the court after the ECP refused to allocate the seats due to the party’s failure to submit its list of candidates before the deadline. The Peshawar High Court (PHC) upheld the ECP’s decision, leading the SIC to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Read More: Reserved seats: ECP legal team ‘advises’ to restore suspended lawmakers

Earlier on July 12, a 13-member bench of the top court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, ruled that the PTI is eligible for the allocation of reserved seats.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah announced the 8-5 majority verdict, setting aside the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) order wherein it had upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision denying the reserved seats to the SIC.

Then Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Jamal Mandokhail, Justice Naeem Afghan, Justice Yahya Afridi, and Justice Ameenuddin Khan opposed the majority decision.

KP Senate elections

Citing the oath non-administering scandal and a related Peshawar High Court (PHC) judgment, the ECP issued an order moments before the Senate elections were to start on April 2. The ECP postponed the Senate elections on 11 KP seats.

Voting was initially planned for 48 Senate seats, including two Islamabad seats, 12 seats each from Punjab and Sindh, and 11 seats each from KP and Balochistan. Apart from Khyber Pakhtunkwa, the Senate elections were held in the National Assembly, and all other provincial assemblies.