PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s 2024 notifications regarding the allocation of reserved seats for women and minorities in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly.
The decision came in response to a petition by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), challenging the ECP’s calculation of reserved seats based on incomplete party positions.
According to the petitioner’s counsel, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has 26 reserved seats for women and 4 for minorities. The notification of Malik Tariq Awan’s victory from PK-82 was issued on February 22. He had joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on February 23 and the party submitted the joining letter to the Election Commission on the same day.
With Tariq Awan’s inclusion, the counsel informed the court, PML-N’s total number of seats in the assembly rose to seven. On March 4, the ECP issued a notification regarding the allocation of minority seats – one each was awarded to JUI-F, PML-N, and PPP, while the fourth seat was left vacant, to be decided by a draw between PML-N and JUI-F.
The court nullified both notifications and directed the ECP to conduct a fresh allocation after hearing all concerned political parties, including PML-N, PPP, JUI-F, ANP, and PTI-Parliamentarians, within ten days.
The court also ordered a halt to oath-taking on these reserved seats until the new allocation is completed.
PML-N argued that the ECP wrongly excluded their joined members from seat calculations, which affected the party’s rightful share of reserved seats.
The bench questioned the ECP’s logic for allocating some seats in February based on that month’s party position, while distributing others later in March. The case highlights concerns over electoral process transparency and the constitutional treatment of party affiliations.
