Islamabad: In a major setback to Pakistan’s ruling coalition, the election commission has notified 39 successful MPs as lawmakers of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party following a landmark Supreme Court directive.
The decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) may help the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) become the largest political party in Parliament.
The ECP finally took action to implement the July 12 judgment of the apex court which ruled that the PTI was a legitimate political party and those lawmakers who were elected as independents could join it.
PTI was not allowed to nominate candidates for the February 8 general elections as it was deprived of its symbol of cricket bat due to failure to hold elections. However, its supported independent candidates won more seats than any other party.
Later, the party decided that they should join the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) to secure a share of the seats reserved for women and minorities. However, the ECP refused to award reserved seats to the SIC, saying that it had not won any seats and all its members won independently.
The SIC filed an appeal in the Peshawar High Court, which rejected it.
The matter landed in the Supreme Court which on July 12 declared that the PTI was a political party and eligible to receive reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the national and provincial assemblies. The ruling meant that independent members of the parliament who won elections with the support of PTI could join it.
Earlier, PTI’s 80 elected members had joined SIC.
The judgement explained that 39 members, who were shown by the ECP as PTI candidates, belonged to the party, while the rest of the 41 independents would have to file duly notarised statements before the commission within 15 days, explaining that they contested the February 8 elections as a candidate of a particular political party.
The ECP after discussion noted that 39 members, who were declared as PTI lawmakers, had mentioned their affiliation with the party in their nomination papers before the elections.
“The 41 candidates who have been declared independent had neither mentioned PTI in their nomination papers nor disclosed their affiliation with the party. And also did not submit any party ticket. Therefore, the returning officers allowed them to participate in the election as independent candidates,” the ECP had explained.
The ECP notification said the following “returned candidates against general seats of National Assembly are declared to have been returned as candidates” of PTI.
The ruling coalition had rejected the apex court judgment on the reserved seats and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) separately filed review petitions in the Supreme Court, which has not yet fixed them for hearing.
The judgment was a huge setback for the government as the PTI is on the way to emerge as the largest party in the National Assembly after getting reserved seats and the remaining 41 lawmakers.
It also deprived the ruling coalition of the two-thirds majority needed to amend the Constitution, as its strength has been reduced to 209 from 228 after it was deprived of the reserved seats which it got from the share of PTI.
In the House of 336, the magic figure to attain a two-thirds majority comes to 224.
Out of the PTI reserved seat share of 22 members, the ECP had awarded 14 to PML-N, five from PPP and three to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam.
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