Following the announcement of the verdict by the Supreme Court in the reserved seats case, the PTI has now become the single largest party in the National Assembly.
The PML-N was the largest single party up until today but is now the second largest.
The PML-N’s strength in the House has reduced from 121 to 107 while PPP’s from 72 to 67.
Those suspended include 22 members of the National Assembly elected on reserved seats for women and minorities. They include 14 from PML-N, five from PPP and three from JUI-F.
The ruling coalition has also lost its two-thirds majority in the lower house of Parliament for now, with its numerical strength shrinking to 209 from 228.
In the House of 336, the magic figure to attain a two-thirds majority comes to 224.
The short order of the decision is yet to be released by the Supreme Court.
Reserved seats case
In a 4-1 verdict in March, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) ruled that the SIC was not entitled to claim quota for reserved seats “due to having non-curable legal defects and violation of a mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats.”
The commission also decided to distribute the seats among other parliamentary parties, with the PML-N and the PPP becoming major beneficiaries, gaining 16 and five additional seats respectively, while the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) was given four seats. The PTI rejected the verdict as unconstitutional.
Later that month, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) dismissed an SIC plea challenging the ECP decision and denied it reserved seats.
In April, the SIC filed a petition before the Supreme Court — moved by party chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza — seeking to set aside the PHC judgment.
On May 6, the apex court suspended the March 14 PHC judgment as well as the March 1 ECP decision to deprive the SIC of seats reserved for women and minorities.
The Supreme Court also ordered placing the present petitions before the three-judge committee that determines the constitution of the bench for the reconstitution of a larger bench. This decision came after Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan highlighted that under Section 4 of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023, the present case should be heard by a larger bench since the issue concerns the interpretation of constitutional provisions.
The ECP subsequently suspended victory notifications of as many as 77 members of the national and provincial assemblies elected on those seats.
