KARACHI: There may be legal impediments to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) obtaining its independents’ share of reserved seats in the National Assembly by joining the Sunni Ittehad Council. However, legal experts argue that denying the PTI its allotted seats could result in an incomplete parliament.
On Monday, the PTI declared that it would officially join the Sunni Ittehad Council in both the National Assembly and provinces such as Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
How does this arrangement work?
According to journalist Majid Nizami, the Sunni Ittehad Council has not gained a seat in the National Assembly, and its head ran for a PTI-supported independent seat, but it is a registered party that anybody can join.
According to Nizami, the Sunni Ittehad Council would now file an application with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) stating that it has this many MNAs and that its reserved seat list must be accommodated.
Nizami adds that the PTI’s gain of reserved seats will not help it create a government, but it will, of course, strengthen its position in the National Assembly. However, this collaboration may not be without its challenges. Nizami believes that there will undoubtedly be a legal battle over this, and that someone will take the subject to court, despite his belief that this should not be such a difficult process for the PTI.
On Monday night, PTI leader and Supreme Court counsel Salman Akram Raja told Geo’s Hamid Mir that the PTI should win its allocated seats, but that “if someone wants to create a legal obstacle in this, they can”.
Raja said if, for whatever reason, the PTI independent candidates do not receive their allotted seats, “will parliament just be left incomplete?” In the words of Raja, “These seats can’t go to any other party in addition to whatever reserved seats they have acquired based on seats they have won.”
