Legal experts say that when reserved seats, which should belong to one party, are not distributed among other parties.
They emphasize that the Election Rules of 2017 clearly state that reserved seats should be allocated based on proportionality according to the total seats won by each party in the national or provincial assemblies.
Here’s some context: Independent candidates affiliated with PTI announced on February 19 that they were joining the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) to retain their share of reserved seats in parliament. The PTI-SIC alliance has applied for the reserved seats, and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is currently holding an open hearing on the matter. On Tuesday, the ECP consolidated all the petitions filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) regarding the allocation of reserved seats.
With lawyers from PPP, PML-N, and MQM-P joining the ECP hearing on Tuesday, the question arises as to whether these parties can claim a stake in the reserved seats if the ECP rules against the PTI-SIC.
Legal experts, including Barrister Ali Zafar and lawyer Akram Khurram, agree that reserved seats should be allocated based on the seats won by each party in the general election, as outlined in Rule 94 of the Election Rules, 2017. They see no legal basis for other parties to claim these reserved seats.
Rule 94 of the Election Rules, 2017 states: “The Commission shall declare the total number of reserved seats won by each political party in the National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies. The percentage share of each political party shall be worked out concerning the total number of general seats in the National Assembly or the respective provincial assembly.”
Akram Khurram mentions that there has never been a precedent of other parties being allotted additional reserved seats. Even if the ECP denies seats to the PTI-SIC, it cannot allocate these seats to any other party.
PILDAT President Ahmed Bilal Mehboob suggests that the matter is primarily between the SIC and the ECP, and other political parties may not be relevant at this stage. He adds that only if the ECP decides not to allocate seats to the SIC will the question of allocating the remaining reserved seats to other parties arise.
The argument for the SIC-PTI getting the reserved seats is that the SIC did not contest the general election, so it would be unfair to expect them to submit the priority list of candidates before the election. Legal experts stress the importance of adhering to the principles of proportionality when allocating reserved seats.
Supreme Court advocate Hafiz Ehsaan Ahmad Khokhar explains that only political parties with assembly presence through general elections are eligible for reserved seats. If the ECP rejects the PTI-SIC petition, these seats will remain empty and will not be shared among other political parties. Requests from other parties to claim these seats are seen as political and not legally acceptable by legal experts.