ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday disposed of a petition to allocate a women’s reserved seat in the National Assembly (NA) from the capital, ARY News reported.
The petitioner, an Islamabad woman, had moved the court to ask the parliament to allocate a reserved seat for women from Islamabad in the lower house.
The government on Friday furnished its report in the court, saying that the government agreed with such a proposition.
The report, however, said that this requires a constitutional amendment, and the proposition has been added in the constitutional amendment bill.
The government maintained that after the relevant standing committee approves the bill, it will be presented in the parliament for voting.
After going through the report, the Supreme Court asked the petitioner if she was satisfied with the government’s response.
On her affirmative reply, the Supreme Court closed the case.
As per the article 51(3) of the Constitution, a total of 60 seats in Pakistan’s lower house are reserved for women.
The seats are divided among the four provinces according to their population, but the federal capital, which has three general seats, doesn’t currently have a women’s seat.
Article 51(6)(d) outlines a proportional representation system for women seats in the NA.
According to this article, the number of reserved seats for women allocated to a political party is proportional to the number of general seats it wins in the NA.
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