ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said on Tuesday that the National Assembly’s inaugural session, slated to be held this week, would be “illegal” if summoned before the country’s election oversight body notifies all the reserved seats in the parliament for women and minorities.
The PTI emerged as the largest group in Pakistan’s National Assembly after bagging the highest number of seats in the Feb. 8 polls. However, its winning candidates joined the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) party last week to claim a share of the reserved seats. A court ruling forced PTI contestants to run as independent candidates during this month’s national polls. According to Pakistani law, independent candidates are neither allowed to form the government nor are entitled to a share in the reserved seats.
The SIC has not been allocated a share in the 70 reserved seats for women and minorities in the provincial legislatures so far. The party has filed at least four separate applications with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) seeking its share of the seats, before the inaugural sessions of the national and provincial legislatures are held this week.
The provincial assemblies of Sindh and Punjab convened their sessions last week and elected their chief ministers on Monday. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s election regulator has yet to decide about the SIC’s reserved seats.
“If the National Assembly session is called, that will be illegal because the assemblies should be convened after all members of the House are notified,” PTI leader Barrister Gohar Khan told reporters outside the ECP’s headquarters in Islamabad.
He described the recently held sessions of Sindh and Punjab assemblies as “illegal,” saying that they had been conducted when there were still reserved seats left to be notified.
The maiden National Assembly session is expected to be held on February 29, according to Pakistan’s constitution, which says the inaugural session should be convened within 21 days of national elections.
Three other major political parties including the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) have filed applications with the election regulator, demanding their share in the remaining reserved seats. They argued that the SIC is not a parliamentary party as its candidates had not contested polls from the party’s platform.
After a brief hearing into the matter, the ECP adjourned the case for Wednesday.
“The public has given us the mandate and we hope the election commission will decide on the matter as per the public’s aspirations,” the PTI leader said. “These [reserved] seats are for the SIC and no other party can lay claim on them.”
He said independent candidates who had won elections could join any political party within three days after they were notified as winners.
SIC chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza said his party had moved the ECP for their share of the reserved seats six days ago. However, he regretted that a decision on the matter was yet to be made.
“We hope the ECP will decide on the matter this time as per law and the constitution,” he said.
PML-N’s Senator Azam Nazir Tarar, however, said the SIC is not a parliamentary party as it did not take part in the elections, hence it cannot lay claim to a share in the reserved seats.
“This is a party that didn’t contest elections, didn’t win a single seat, and they are saying they have the right to reserved seats because a bunch of independent candidates joined them,” Tarar said.
