Islamabad: Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party has received a massive blow after a fresh allocation of seats to various political parties in the national assembly ended its parliamentary presence.
As per the revised party positions made public on Friday, the strength of the ruling coalition stands at 214 in the house of 336, while the opposition benches comprise 99 members.
The ruling coalition’s numbers are short of the two-thirds majority of 224 needed to amend the Constitution, which makes the allocation crucial for either side.
The fresh allocation comes days after the Supreme Court of Pakistan had ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to implement its verdict on reserved seats, a decision that would have benefitted Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
Khan, 71, has been incarcerated at the Adiala Jail since last year after his arrest under multiple cases and conviction in some of them.
Independently elected lawmakers are not allowed to change sides once they have joined any political party after elections, National Assembly speaker Ayaz Sadiq wrote to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)
The National Assembly Secretariat reshuffled the seat allocation after the letter that showed that 80 PTI members – previously under the category of ‘Independent’ candidates – are now listed as belonging to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
Another eight independent members elected with the support of PTI have been listed as independent lawmakers.
The opposition benches now comprise 80 members of the Sunni Ittehad Council, eight members of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), and eight independent members supported by PTI.
Additional representation comes from Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PKMAP), Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), and Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), each with one seat.
The opposition thus totals 99.
Further, the new party positions shows that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has 111 members, while its major coalition partners, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-P) have 69 and 22 members respectively.
Among the junior partners of the government, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) has five members, Istekam-e-Pakistan Party has four and Pakistan Muslim League-Zia, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and National Party have one seat each.
Thus, the total strength of the coalition government stands at 214 in the house of 336, which is short of the two-third majority of 224 that is needed to amend the constitution.
However, 23 disputed reserved seats are not included in the official count and are currently the focus of political tension between the government and the Supreme Court.
The apex court on July 12 had decided that the PTI was eligible for the reserved seats. However, the government changed the election laws to institute that no independent member can change his party after joining one after elections.
Earlier, the PTI had decided that all those elected as independent candidates with its support should join the SIC to claim the reserved seats.
But the Election Commission of Pakistan rejected the SIC plea for reserved seats with the observation that the party had not submitted its list of members for the reserved seats on time.
It also stated that the SIC had not won any seats in elections and became a parliamentary party after independents joined it.
The allocation of 23 reserved seats is crucial as it will help the government to gain two-third majority. Contrarily, the allocation of seats to PTI might make it the largest party or on par with the PML-N in terms of the numbers.
Earlier, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq wrote to the Election Commission to allocate the reserved seats in line with the Election Act.
The letter clarified that any member of parliament who did not submit a party certificate with their nomination papers would be considered an independent candidate.
Furthermore, independent members who joined a political party would not be permitted to switch affiliations.
The developments come a day ahead of the proposed PTI power show at Lahore on Saturday.
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