ECP announces decision on Sunni Ittehad Counci's reserved seats

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday rejected the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) petition, seeking the allocation of reserved seats following a ‘merger’ with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for this specific purpose, ARY News reported.

The ECP was requested to allot the seats on the basis of the inclusion of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed candidates in their party. In this regard, a request drafted by SIC Chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza was submitted with the electoral watchdog through a PTI representative.

After hearing arguments from all sides, the commission had reserved its verdict on Wednesday, a day before the maiden session of the National Assembly.

The electoral watchdog, in its decision today, PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council was not eligible for the reserved seats allotted to women and minorities.

The ECP announced the split decision with a 4-1 majority under Clause 6 of Article 53 of the Constitution and Section 104 of the Election Act. ECP Punjab member Hassan Bharwana dissented with the majority verdict.

In the verdict, the ECP said the SIC is not entitled to claim quota for reserved seats due to having “non curable legal defects and violation of a mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats which is the requirement of law”.

“The seats in the National Assembly shall not remain vacant and will be allotted by proportional representation process of political parties on the basis of seats won by political parties,” the order said.

Citing Article 51(6) of the Constitution, the electoral watchdog said the reserved seats would be allocated to the political parties who contested elections and won general seats on the basis of “proportional representation system”.

It stated that per centum share of each political party shall be worked out with reference to total number of general seats in the National Assembly and the provincial assembly. “The same formula is provided for the reserved seats for non-Muslims.”

PTI candidates contested the elections as independents after the Supreme Court upheld the election supervisor’s decision, considering its intra-party polls “unconstitutional” and revoked its claim on the electoral symbol of ‘bat’.

As per the Constitution, the reserved seats are allocated to the political parties on the basis of the number of their lawmakers elected on the general seats. For their allocation, the ECP had already received the priority list of candidates from the parties before the Feb 8 polls.

The situation this year is different from the previous elections as the largest group of lawmakers are independents, who cannot have the reserved seats.

There are a total of 346 reserved seats for women – 60 in the NA and 66, 29, 26, and 11 in the provincial legislatures of Punjab, Sindh, K-P, and Balochistan.

Similarly, there are 10 reserved seats for minorities in the lower house. Besides, there are eight, nine and three reserved seats for minorities in the Punjab Sindh, and Balochistan assemblies.

Sunni Itthead Council, in its letter, stated that 86 independent candidates of the National Assembly had joined his party, adding that 107 independents of Punjab Assembly, 90 of K-P Assembly and nine independent members of Sindh Assembly now garnered the support of the SIC.