Reserved seat row simmers in Pakistan as lawmakers prepare for presidential election

ISLAMABAD: The dispute over reserved seats in Pakistan’s parliament lingered on Friday after several lawmakers took oath in the National Assembly to fill them out amid the opposition protest just a day ahead of the presidential election in the country.
Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has been striving to get its share of 70 reserved seats for women and religious minorities in the National Assembly and a total of combined 149 of them in provincial legislatures.
However, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) declined to allocate these seats to Khan’s faction since PTI lawmakers were forced to contest last month’s general elections as independent candidates after their party lost its symbol in a legal battle days ahead of the electoral contest.
PTI lawmaker joined a right-wing religious group, Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), to iron out the problem, but the ECP’s decision prompted the party challenge it in the Peshawar High Court and secure a stay order in its favor.
As the National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq started administering oath to lawmakers on the reserved seats, PTI leader Omer Ayub Khan declared it “contempt of court.”
“This oath-taking is illegal,” he said on the floor of the house. “It must be declared null and void.”
The government’s viewpoint was the Peshawar High Court’s order to halt the swearing-in of assembly members for reserved seats only applied to eight members from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Meanwhile, one of the candidates for Saturday’s presidential election, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, wrote a letter to the ECP, demanding postponement of contest while point out that the electoral college for the office of the head of state was incomplete until the reserved seats remained vacant.
Achakzai, who is backed by the PTI-SIC alliance, also noted the case related to these seats remained pending in front of the higher judiciary.
“Without completion of electoral college i.e. election on the reserved seats, issuance of election schedule or holding of election to the office of the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan would be illegal, unlawful and against the spirit of Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” he noted in the letter.
“Under the above circumstances,” Achakzai continued, “it is submitted that the proposed election to the office of the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is clearly impossible, therefore the same may kindly be postponed or delayed till completion of electoral college accordingly in the best interest of justice, fair play and equity.”
The presidential election is scheduled to begin at 10am on Saturday.