The Supreme Court of Pakistan has declined a request to enforce its earlier decision regarding the allocation of reserved seats to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) based on 39 declared members of the National Assembly.
A constitutional bench of the Supreme Court heard the plea, during which Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar questioned whether the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had officially declared these 39 members as part of PTI. Advocate Faisal Siddiqi, representing PTI, argued that the party had not been allotted reserved seats proportionally, despite the recognition of these 39 members.
The Director General (Law) of the ECP informed the bench that no reserved seats had been allotted yet, and a formula for seat allocation would be applied across the board. Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi asked whether other parties had received their reserved seats, to which the DG Law replied in the negative.
Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail observed that based on a total of 80 general seats, PTI would be entitled to approximately 22 to 23 reserved seats. Justice Mazhar pointedly asked why PTI had not received its due share of reserved seats if 39 of its members had already been officially declared.
The ECP’s counsel argued that under the current law, once a political affiliation is declared in the nomination papers, it cannot be changed, and that the law was being applied retrospectively. He also noted that a review petition on the matter was already pending.
Advocate Faisal Siddiqi warned that failure to implement the court’s judgment could cast doubts on the future credibility of the Supreme Court itself.
Despite the arguments, the constitutional bench ultimately rejected the plea to enforce the allocation of reserved seats for PTI based on the 39 recognized members.
