Reserved seats verdict: Ruling coalition loses two-thirds majority in NA

ISLAMABAD: Following the Supreme Court’s (SC) verdict on reserved seats, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is poised to become the majority party in the National Assembly.

The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan overturned the denial of reserved seats to the PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council.

Following the verdict of the SC, the ruling coalition has lost two-thirds majority in the lower house of the Parliament (NA), however, they still enjoy the simple majority with 210 seats in the house. The opposition will have 125 seats.

Previously, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) allotted reserved seats to other parties in the assemblies.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was allotted 14 seats, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) 5, and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl was given three reserved seats in the National Assembly.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, JUI-F was allotted 10 seats, while PML-N and PPP each received 7 seats, and ANP got 1 seat.

Read more: Supreme Court declares PTI eligible for reserved seats

In Punjab, PML-N secured 23 seats, PPP 2, and both PML-Q and Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party received 1 seat each.

In Sindh Assembly, PPP received two reserved seats, and MQM was given a single seat by the ECP.

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 seats for women and minorities among other political parties.

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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.