Blow to PTI

The legal word confirming the negation of reserved seats has come as a blow to the PTI. A five-member bench of the Peshawar High Court upheld the electoral watchdog’s decision to reject the allocation of seats to the Sunni Ittehad Council, a parliamentary nomenclature of PTI’s elected Independents. This was an utter surprise as the plaintiff was expecting an instant relief to buckle up its numerical strength on the floors of the houses. The same PHC had earlier ruled against the Election Commission’s stance to take away the PTI’s electoral symbol of ‘cricket bat’ and, thus, this somersault was quite unexpected. It seems the judges had relied conveniently on technical interpretation of the plea, and formed an opinion based on the premise that SIC did not contest general elections as a political party, and had merely pronounced itself as a parliamentary group at the behest of PTI.

This decision will go a long way in upping the ante of volatility in politics. The PTI is certainly not going to take the defeat lying down, and contest the ECP’s exceptional stunt to distribute its reserved seats in the superior judiciary. To what extent it succeeds in being heard, in the wake of an aura of dissent against it, is anybody’s guess. PILDAT, a non-partisan political think tank, had voiced the decision to deny reserved seats as unjustified. With PPP and PML-N being prime beneficiaries of this uneven pie of cake, it is set to intensify friction and also scuttle the fair distribution of funds among the legislators.

The PTI, with SIC and MWM, in its wings must also take stock of its claim of seeking reserved seats under Article 104’s section (c) of Elections Act, and put up a foolproof argument before the apex court. It is no secret that PTI’s legal muscles were not found apt in the dock, contrary to the beleaguered party’s strengths on streets and social media. Its inability to move the top court on Form 45 v/s 47 litigation is another case in point. PTI needs some good homework to checkmate the ECP gurus in the court of law.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2024.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.