Pakistan: Imran Khan's PTI to emerge as largest party in Parliament

The Pakistan Supreme Court ruled on July 12 that Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was eligible for over 20 seats reserved for women and minorities in the Parliament, making it the largest party in the National Assembly as its seats will likely soar from 86 to 109, after it gains 23 reserved seats, according to a report. 

The court's decision marks a major legal victory for the jailed former prime minister, who demanded the resignation of the election commission chief.

PTI-backed candidates who had contested and won the elections held on February 8 as independents after their party was stripped of its election symbol, had joined the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) which is a political alliance of Islamic political and Barelvi religious parties in Pakistan. The move was made to form a coalition of convenience.

The SIC had also filed a plea challenging the Peshawar High Court (PHC) decision's to uphold the move by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to deny its share in reserved seats in the assemblies.

Following this, a 13-member bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa heard the case. The ruling in the case will pose a major setback to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition though there is no immediate threat to the federal government.

Chief Justice Isa announced after the proceedings that the panel decided to reserve the verdict for mutual consultation, which it announced on July 12.

A majority of eight judges ruled in favour of SIC by overturning the orders of the top election body and the judgment of the Peshawar High Court, while Justice Mansoor Ali Shah announced the3 verdict.

As per the verdict, “The order of the Election Commission of Pakistan, dated 1st of March 2024, is declared to be to ultra vires to (beyond the powers of) the Constitution, without lawful authority and of no legal effect,” media sources reported.

Furthermore, it read, “The notifications of various dates, whereby the persons respectively mentioned therein, being the persons identified in the commission’s notification, dated 13th of May, 2024, have been declared to be returned candidates for reserved seats for women and minorities in the national and provincial assemblies, are declared to be ultra vires to the Constitution, without lawful authority and of no legal effect, and are quashed from 6th of May 2024 onwards.” 

The court also declared “the lack or denial of an election symbol does not in any manner affect the constitutional and legal rights of a political party to participate in an election (whether general or by) and to field candidates and the Commission is under a constitutional duty to act, and construe and apply all statutory provisions, accordingly”.

The verdict further declared that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was a political party and eligible for reserved seats. 

Meanwhile, Khan took to the microblogging site X and wrote, "Allah is Al Haq! (Allah is the truth). I have repeatedly raised concerns about the prejudice exhibited by the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan against me and PTI. Today's Supreme Court decision—establishing the ECP’s bias and malafide against PTI —reinforces our stance. We demand criminal proceedings under Article 6 of the Constitution against all those responsible for disenfranchising millions of voters and supporters of Pakistan’s largest political party. Sikandar Sultan Raja and the ECP members must resign immediately! Also, I would reiterate that Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Esa must distance himself from the cases involving me or PTI."

PTI chief Gohar Khan also hailed the verdict as a 'historic decision' in the country's history. "We finally got what we deserved," he said while speaking outside the apex court. He added, "Today is a day of happiness for the 250 million people of Pakistan."

The opposition alliance in the National Assembly will surge to a strength of 120. Currently, the combined opposition, including the PTI, has 97 members. Khan's party has 86 members in the lower house, 84 of whom are on board with the SIC and two independents — party leaders Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Omar Ayub Khan.

With the majority seats of the PTI in the lower house of the legislature, the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will continue to occupy the simple majority with the strength of 209 members. The PML-N has a total of 108 members.

The PTI party could not contest the Feb 8 elections as the ECP rejected its intra-party elections and deprived it of the bat symbol for contesting the elections as a party, hence it was not eligible to claim the seats reserved for women and minorities that are awarded to the winning parties based on proportional representation.