ISLAMABAD: Despite enabling its independent returned candidates to join smaller political parties such as the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) may not receive reserved seats for women and minorities in the national and provincial assemblies.
The Election Act of 2017 allows only women and minority nominees to be considered for reserved seats if their names are submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) within a defined timeframe by each political party. No names can be added after the given time period has expired.
This implies that PTI-backed independents joining political parties like the JI/MWM or any other party will not pave the path for the election of the PTI’s women and minority nominees against the reserved seats in the National and provincial assemblies.
PTI independents who join the JI or MWM can only benefit their respective parties’ nominees for reserved seats, not the PTI’s.
On December 18, last year, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) directed candidates running for reserved seats for women and minorities to get nomination papers from the appropriate returning officers and district election commissioners. The ECP has set December 22 as the deadline for submitting these nomination papers to returning officers.
When contacted, former Secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan Kanwar Dilshad stated that the Election Act prohibits the PTI from winning reserved seats by joining any party.
However, when challenged about this Election Act section, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan stated that the PTI believes the ECP may misinterpret the Election Act in order to deny the PTI reserved seats. He, however, underlined that the PTI’s legal brains are confident that the party’s legal position is clear and that clause 4 of Section 104 of the Election Act ensures the PTI’s effort to gain its reserved seats by joining the JI and MWM.
