PESHAWAR: Opposition political parties face off on reserved seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Monday challenged in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to award a minority seat to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).

The petition filed in PHC has made the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Speaker KP Assembly, and the JUI-F’s minority leader respondents in the petition.

According to the petition, the JUI-F and the PML-N have an equal number of 7 general seats in the house. “In case of equal number of seats of two parties the minority special seats are given to the party that wins toss”, petitioner said. “The election commission has allotted the reserved seat to the JUI without conducting a toss to decide the matter”.

So, the petition stated the ECP has deprived the PML-N from minority reserved seats. The PML-N party has due right on the reserved seat of minority.

PML-N argued that although it was entitled to seven reserved seats in the provincial assembly, the election commission, in violation of the constitution, the Election Act and the rules, gave it six seats. The PML-N further said that a formula for awarding reserved seats to political parties had been laid down in the constitution as well as in the Election Act. “But the ECP overlooked it,” the party complained.

Since the election commission’s decision was in violation of the constitution, the party said, therefore, the court was requested to declare it null and void. Petitioner has requested the court to declare the election commission’s decision as void seeking toss for decision over the minorities reserved seat.

The party also prayed to the court to bar the KP Assembly speaker from administering the oath to Gurpal Singh until it pronounced a decision on the petition. It was mentioned in the petition that PML-N has won the five general seats from KP and two joined later on, the party must be given minority reserved seats.

Earlier, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) had dismissed a petition of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), ruling party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, over reserved seats in assemblies. A five-member bench of the high court had given a unanimous decision on the petition.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024