ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) is set to emerge as the single largest party in the National Assembly, while the ruling coalition seems set to lose its two-thirds majority, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s judgement declaring the PTI eligible to get reserved seats.
The number of lawmakers belonging to PTI — including those who had earlier been called PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) candidates — collectively comes to 92. After getting 22 reserved seats in the House, which had earlier been distributed by the ECP among three different political parties, its number will surge to 114.
The JUI-F has eight and PkMAP, BNP-M and MWM have one seat each, which means that the total strength of the opposition in the National Assembly will now become 125.
They will include eight members of the House who had not joined SIC, including PTI Chairman Barrister Ali Gohar, Leader of the Opposition Omar Ayub Khan, Ali Asghar Khan, Aslam Ghumman, Mubarak Zeb, Usman Ali, Zahoor Qureshi and Aurangzeb Khichi.
The strength of the ruling coalition will remain at 209, short of the magic figure of 224 required to attain a two-thirds majority in the House of 336.
The PML-N’s strength in the House has reduced to 108, with 84 of them had been elected on general seats, 20 on reserved seats for women and four elected on seats reserved for minorities.
The PPP has 68 members, of which 54 won general seats and 12 and two were elected against reserved seats for women and minorities, respectively.
The MQM’s 21 members include 17 on general seats and the rest are on reserved seats for women.
The PML-Q’s five seats include four general seats and one reserved seat for women.
Likewise, the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) has four seats — three general and one reserved for women.
After the Supreme Court suspended the Peshawar High Court’s judgement depriving the PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) of reserved seats for women and minorities, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had suspended the victory notifications of as many as 77 members of the national and provincial assemblies elected on these seats.
The suspended lawmakers include 44 from PML-N, 15 from PPP, 13 from JUI-F and one each from PML-Q, IPP, PTI-P, MQM-P and ANP.
These included 22 members of the National Assembly elected on reserved seats for women and minorities, 14 from PML-N, five from PPP and three from JUI-F, who were suspended when the Supreme Court took up the matter.
Meanwhile, in the provinces, the membership of 21 lawmakers elected on reserved seats for women in the KP Assembly had also been suspended. They included eight from JUI-F, six from PML-N, five from PPP and one each from PTI-P and ANP.
Four members of the provincial assembly elected on reserved seats for minorities are now suspended, including two from JUI-F and one each from PML-N and PPP.
In addition, 24 lawmakers from the Punjab Assembly, who had been elected on seats reserved for women and were subsequently suspended, include 21 from the PML-N and one each from PPP, IPP and PML-Q.
Three suspended members of the provincial assembly occupying reserved seats for non-Muslims include two from the PML-N and one from the PPP.
Among the three Sindh Assembly members who had been suspended, two were from PPP and one from MQM.
Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2024
