ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court’s landmark judgement in the reserved seats case has paved way for Senate elections on 11 seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that were postponed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), over three months ago, citing non-administering of oath on part of speaker KP Assembly to six PML-N lawmakers elected on women-reserved seats claimed by the SIC.
Under the present situation, the ECP is bound to hold Senate polls on the aforementioned 11 KP seats once it allots the reserved seats to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the KP Assembly, admitted an ECP official.
The poll body, after the allotment of reserved seats to PTI in the light of the apex court’s decision, would announce the schedule for Senate elections for KP seats, the source said.
Senate elections on 11 seats of KP likely to face delay
In KP Assembly, 25 seats that were allocated to other political parties and claimed by Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) would now go to PTI in accordance with the SC reserved seats case order.
The PTI-led ruling side has 93 of the total 145 seats in KP Assembly. After the allotment of 25 reserved seats, its strength would increase to 118 seats, a possible scenario which implies that the political party can secure up to 10 of 11 seats of KP in Senate once elections are held, making it single largest party in the Senate with up to 28 seats.
Of the 25 reserved seats, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazal (JUI-F) lost 10 seats; eight women and two minorities, Pakistan Muslim League –Nawaz (PML-N) lost seven seats; six women and a minority seat, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) lost six seats; five women and a minority, and Awami National Party (ANP), and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P) lost a woman seat each.
On April 2, just when the Senate elections were scheduled, the ECP issued an allegedly controversial order to postpone the Senate elections on 11 KP seats citing the oath non-administering controversy and a related order of Peshawar high Court (PHC) in this regard.
Originally, polling was scheduled on 48 Senate seats, comprising of 12 seats each of Punjab and Sindh, 11 seats each of KP and Balochistan, and two seats of Islamabad. But with the unopposed election of senators on 11 seats of Balochistan and seven seats of Punjab, and the polls postponement on 11 KP seats, the Senate elections were finally held on only 19 seats on April 2.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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