IHC to hear PTI-P challenge to ECP notification today
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday will hear a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P) seeking suspension of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) July 2 notification allocating 21 reserved seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly.
The PTI-P, led by Pervaiz Khattak, has accused the ECP of unlawfully depriving it of its rightful share of reserved seats by relying on an allegedly incorrect count of general seats won by PTI-P in the February 8 elections.
The petition argues that if the notified lawmakers are allowed to take oath and participate in the assembly, it would cause “irreversible prejudice” and render PTI-P’s main constitutional petition ineffective.
The PTI-P contends that the ECP’s March 4 notification erroneously recorded the party as having won only one general seat in KP, when in fact it had won two — PK-73 and PK-103. This miscalculation, the party says, resulted in the loss of at least three reserved seats for women and non-Muslims that should have been allocated to PTI-P under the system of proportional representation.
Despite this discrepancy, the ECP went on to issue the July 2 notification allocating the reserved seats based on what PTI-P describes as a “fundamentally flawed” premise.
The dispute over the allocation of reserved seats had also been under review in the Peshawar High Court. The PHC had initially granted a stay on the oath-taking process on the petition filed by PTI-P.
However, during a subsequent hearing, a two-member PHC bench comprising Justices Syed Arshad Ali and Dr Khurshid Iqbal questioned how PTI-P could maintain litigation in PHC while a similar matter was pending before the IHC.
The PTI-P’s counsel, Advocate Sultan Mohammad Khan, later informed the court that the parliamentary leader Arbab Mohammad Waseem, who had filed the PHC petition, was unaware of the IHC proceedings.
Following this clarification, the PTI-P chose to withdraw its petition, and the PHC bench dismissed the plea and recalled the stay order granted on July 1.
Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2025