By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), a key coalition partner in the government, has petitioned the Supreme Court to review its earlier judgment granting Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party additional reserved seats in parliament.
The PPP’s move comes after the Supreme Court ruled on July 12 that PTI was entitled to its share of reserved seats, increasing pressure on the fragile coalition government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
“It is respectfully prayed that the review petition may kindly be accepted […] and the short order by the court may graciously be reviewed and recalled,” the PPP’s petition read. “Further in the interim it is respectfully prayed that operation of the short order […] passed by the court may be graciously stayed or suspended.”
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party candidates contested the Feb. 8 general elections as independents after the party was barred from the polls and though these independents won the most seats, the election commission ruled they were not entitled to their share of reserved seats in national and provincial assemblies for women and minorities since these were meant for political parties only.
The seats were then allotted to other parties, mostly from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition.
The PTI stands to gain up to 23 reserved seats if the Supreme Court’s judgment is implemented, potentially altering the balance of power in the National Assembly.
The reserved seats in question include 60 for women and 10 for non-Muslims in the National Assembly, allocated proportionally to parties based on their general election performance. Similar seats are distributed in the four provincial assemblies.
“By carving out a procedure which is not provided under the Constitution, the order under review might have gone into the realm of creating and not just interpreting the Constitution which is against the long-standing jurisprudence of this Honourable Court,” the PPP petition read.
“It has been stated innumerable times by this Court that the function of the Court is interpretation, not legislation.”
The suspended lawmakers include 44 from PML-N, 15 from PPP, 13 from JUI-F, and one each from PML-Q, IPP, PTI-P, MQM-P, and ANP.
Resultantly, the ruling coalition lost a two-thirds majority in the lower house of Parliament for now, with its numerical strength shrinking to 209 from 228. In the House of 336, the magic figure to attain a two-thirds majority comes to 224. The PML-N’s strength in the House reduced from 121 to 107 while PPP’s from 72 to 67.
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