ISLAMABAD – Power realigned as Election Commission of Pakistan handed reserved seats to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) in accordance with recent Supreme Court verdict.
Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench overturned an earlier ruling granted reserved seats to PTI. In 7-judge majority decision, the apex court invalidated July 12, 2024, judgement that recognized PTI’s eligibility for reserved seats for women and minorities, effectively stripping it of parliamentary party status.
Acting swiftly on new ruling, Election Commision withdrew its previous notifications from July 24 and 29 last year, which declared general seat winners in NA and provincial assemblies as PTI members. In fresh notification issued on Wednesday, the ECP awarded 13 reserved National Assembly seats to the PML-N, four to the PPP, and two to JUI-F.
With this reallocation, the ruling alliance now commands 235 seats in the 336-member lower house — well above the 224 needed to secure a two-thirds majority. The updated party position released by the National Assembly Secretariat shows the opposition holding 98 seats, with one lawmaker suspended and two reserved seats yet to be filled.
ECP issued new notifications for reserved seats in provincial legislatures. In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, 10 reserved seats were allotted to JUI-F, followed by seven to PML-N, six to PPP, and one each to PTI-Parliamentarians and Awami National Party (ANP).
In Punjab, the PML-N received 23 reserved seats, the PPP two, while the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) secured one seat each. In Sindh, two reserved seats went to the PPP and one to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).
The issue of reserved seats has been the subject of legal wrangling since March 25, 2024, when the Peshawar High Court ruled that the Sunni Ittehad Council the party joined by PTI-backed independents after the February 8 general elections and was not entitled to reserved seats.
Supreme Court Justices Ayesha A. Malik and Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi rejected review petitions filed by the PML-N, PPP, and the ECP. However, they were later excluded from the bench hearing the case. Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail maintained in both his earlier and reviewed opinions that PTI had the parliamentary strength to qualify for reserved seats. He had urged the ECP to recalculate the allocations accordingly.
July 12 judgement instructed 41 independent candidates to submit notarized declarations confirming their party affiliation, which led the ECP to count them as PTI members. However, Justices Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, who initially backed that ruling, later shifted their stance and supported the review petitions.
They concluded that matter remained unresolved in both PHC and Supreme Court and directed the ECP to reassess the nomination papers and declarations of all 80 returned candidates before finalizing the allocation of reserved seats.
