ISLAMABAD: Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) has become the second largest political party in the National Assembly after the electoral body has finally accepted it as a registered parliamentary political party with the issuance of notification of Faisal Amin Khan Gandapur as first Member National Assembly (MNA) from SIC on Friday.

In this context, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has intimated the NA Secretariat accordingly, it is learnt.

This implies that 82 candidates backed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who contested and won the general elections on SIC tickets, are now officially the SIC MNAs. Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) has 120 seats and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has 71 seats in NA.

Accordingly, the status of PTI-backed members in the provincial assemblies would also change from independents to SIC members. However, it remains unclear, till date, if reserved seats in the Assemblies are to be reallocated—which, if done— would impact the numerical strengths of the political parties in the Assemblies.

In an apparently controversial decision, the ECP, last month, rejected the SIC’s petition for the allocation of reserved seats in the Assemblies to SIC. The PTI-backed winners of February 8 general elections joined SIC in a bid to secure the reserved seats in the aftermath of the denial of electoral symbol to PTI.

“The Commission is of the view that in light of clear provisions of Article 51(6) of the Constitution read with Section 104 of the Elections Act 2017 and Rule 92 and 94 of the Election Rules 2017, SIC is not entitled to claim for the quota for reserved seats for women and non-Muslims due to having non-curable legal defects and violation of mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats which is the requirement of law,” stated a verdict issued by the ECP last month in the case related to the allocation of reserved seats to SIC.

The seats in NA shall not remain vacant and will be allocated by proportional representation process of political parties on the basis of seats won by political parties, the 22-page verdict stated.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024