Will Supreme Court decision on reserve seats affect Senate elections?

Will the Supreme Court’s (SC) decision on reserve seats affect the Senate elections? This is a question being discussed among the public after the Speaker of the Punjab Assembly (PA) deprived the ruling coalition in Punjab of 27 members on Friday. The ruling party led by PML-N lost these numbers on reserve seats over the speaker’s ruling on a point of order of an opposition member. Earlier the apex court set aside the allocation of reserved seats by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to political parties.
The PA Speaker Malik Mohammad Ahmed Khan decided this in light of a point of order that Rana Aftab of the PTI-backed SIC raised during the house proceedings. The Speaker suspended 24 women and three minority MPAs elected on reserved seats and barred them from joining the house proceedings. The opposition member on Thursday said to the Speaker that the SC had suspended the decision of the Election Commission to allocate the reserved seats of SIC to other parties. The SC suspended the decision of the ECP for allocating these seats to other political parties pleading that the SIC had neither contested elections nor had submitted a list of nominees for the seats reserved for women and minorities.
The ECP refusing to allocate these seats to the SIC notified these seats to the parties in the ruling coalition. The ECP allocated 15 reserved seats for women to the PMLN, four to the PPP, and one to the JUIF. The ECP allocated one seat each to the PMLN, the PPP, and the MQM Pakistan reserved for minorities.
The suspended MPs of the ruling coalition are Amna Parveen, Rubina Nazir, Saeeda Samreen Taj Maqsoodan Bibi, Salma Zahid, Kanwal Nauman, Zeba Ghafoor, Sheharbano, Syed Sumera Ahmed, Uzma Butt, Afshan Hussain, Saeeda Muzaffar, Shagufta Faisal, Nasreen Riaz, Sajida Naveed, Farzana Abbas, Mariya Talal, Tasheen Fawad, Abida Bashir, Faiza Monima, Amera Khan, Samiya Ata, Rahat Afza and Rukhsana Shafiq. the suspended lawmakers on minority seats include Tariq Masih Gill, Waseem Anjum, and Basroji.
The decision of both the SC and the PA’s Speaker will also affect the ruling parties in Islamabad where in in the National Assembly (NA) it will lose nearly two dozen members on reserve seats. President Asif Ali Zardari summoned the NA session on Monday where some of the opposition will likely raise a similar point of order. What choice will be left for the ruling coalition then is a question that will get clear on Monday.
The ECP granted reserve seats to the ruling coalition instead of SIC thus making PMLN the largest party with 123 seats, and the PPP and the JUIF next to it with 73 and 11 seats respectively. The ECP also notified 26 members of reserve seats in KP on the same day when they were notified in Punjab. The PMLN won a total of 75 general seats in the elections of 2024 afterwards nine independents joined this party. PMLN reached 107 seats after it was allocated 19 reserved seats for women and four for minorities. Afterward in March, this party was allocated 15 more out of the remaining 20 reserved seats for women and one out of the three remaining seats reserved for minorities. It took PMLN to 123 seats in total.
The PPP secured 54 general seats and was given 12 seats reserved for women and two for minorities. After the allocation of four more seats reserved for women and one for minorities on March 5, the number of the PPP rose to 73. The MQM Pakistan had 22 seats in the NA, while JUIF rose from seven to 11 seats. The PTI did not win a seat in the Baluchistan Assembly, however, in Sindh, the two reserved seats for women were given to the PPP putting aside the share of the PTI-backed SIC. Importantly in KP where the ECP differed the Senate election till further order saw a very surprising allocation of reserved seats.
The PTI-supported independents secured 91 seats in KP while all other political parties won just 19 seats in the general elections of 2024. Among other political parties JUIF with seven general seats on the top. These parties were allocated 10 reserved seats for women. The PMLN that won six general seats was allocated eight reserved seats. The PPP with four general seats was given six reserved seats. The ANP and the PTI Parliamentarian with one general seat each went to double by one each with received seats. The ECP notified 26 members on reserved seats in the KP Assembly while the Speaker of the KP assembly did not administer oath on all notified members yet despite the Peshawar High Court’s orders.
On the other hand, the ECP conducted senate elections in April while these elections in KP differed till further order in KP. The ECP taking action over an application of the opposition members in the KP Assembly postponed those elections. The ECP observed that the standards of honesty, justness, and fairness of election as provided by the constitution could not be fulfilled as the electoral college of KP’s assembly was not complete due to non-administration of the oath of the notified members on reserved seats.
The PTI boycotted these polls both in Sindh and when both Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani and Sardar Syedal Khan Nasir were elected unopposed respectively over the slots of Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Upper House. The PTI challenged both the decision of PHC and ECP in the Supreme Court stating it unconstitutional.
Now when the SC has set aside the decision of the ECP for allocating reserved seats then what legitimacy remains for the Senate elections that were conducted in the previous month in provinces other than KP? This is a question that persists. The decision of the SC and Speaker Punjab Assembly has given new strength to the PTI and its supporters particularly when the government and military establishment are holding it responsible for May 9. It is also awaited now what the SC will decide on Senate. (By Rana Kashif)