LHC directs ECP to re-calculate reserved seats for women

LHC directs ECP to allot the deserving seat to JUI-F according to the ratio of reserved seats.

RAWALPINDI: A Division Bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench on Wednesday directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to re-calculate the reserved seats for women and allot the deserving seat to JUI-F, according to the ratio of reserved seats.

The ECP conceded before the court that JUI-F member Naeema Kausar deserved the seat according to the ratio of reserved seats for every party from the Khyber-Pakhtukhwa Provincial Assembly.

Hearing the petition filed by JUI-F, the bench comprising Justice Sagheer Ahmed Qadri and Justice Ijaz Ahmed directed the ECP to recalculate the seats within a month’s time.

JUI-F had first filed an application for re-calculation in the ECP from where it had gone to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) after the 2008 General Elections. However, the petition was taken up by the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench on the dissolution of IHC.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s party had alleged it was deprived of a seat on reserved seats for women as per the quota from the provincial assembly according to the formula used to calculate reserved seats.

Out of a total of 35 seats from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), seven seats were reserved for women and one for independent candidates in the National Assembly in the February 2008 General Elections.

However, the JUI-F claimed that a seat that its candidate, Naeema Kausar, deserved was not awarded to her. Instead, candidates from Pakistan Peoples party (PPP) and Awami National Party (ANP) were awarded a seat each, whereas one of them had to gain it since there was a tie. This extra seat allotted to one of them should actually have gone to the JUI-F candidate.

As a result of the re-calculation of seats by the ECP, one of the two parties, either PPP or ANP, will lose their seat on reserved seats for women, said Kamran Murtaza, the counsel for JUI-F.

However, he said it was up to the ECP to decide within a month, since they had submitted in written that the JUI-F rightfully deserved the seat which it had been denied.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 28^th, 2010.