Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party on June 23 reiterated its demand for Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja’s immediate resignation for failing to hold “free and fair” elections and protested against the “injustices” being committed against the party, according to media reports.

“Leaders of 71-year-old Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, along with other National Assembly members, led a protest rally from the Parliament to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on the Constitution Avenue in Islamabad,” The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

Led by Leader of Opposition and party leader Omar Ayub, the protesters demanded the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Raja and election commission members for alleged poll rigging.

The controversial February 8 general elections in Pakistan were marred with massive rigging allegations. During the rally, Mr. Ayub called for the immediate resignation of CEC Raja and other members of the ECP, alleging that the only job of the Election Commission was to conduct clean and transparent polls, but it failed to fulfil its constitutional duty, The News International newspaper reported.

“The protesters were stopped from reaching the electoral body’s central office, as large contingents of security personnel were deployed outside the ECP building,” the report said. Slogans were also chanted for the release of party founder and cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan.

Mr. Khan has been incarcerated in the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi since September last year. He was shifted to this prison from the District Jail Attock, where he had been lodged after his arrest on August 5, 2023, following his conviction in the Toshakhana case.

Addressing the rally, PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Khan said, “The doors of courts have been closed on Opposition leaders; our women are in jail, and history will remember them.” He said that it was a matter of regret that all the Parliamentarians were coming out on the streets and protesting for the release of PTI founder Khan,” the report said.

“Today, we have come out against this injustice. Our voice is not being heard in this House (Parliament). Whatever we said in the House, our voice was silenced. We want the women’s release. This is a clear violation of human rights,” he said.

Addressing the protesters, the party’s central leader, Asad Qaiser, said, “On May 9, we were targeted on the pretext that we are not negotiating with anyone. Our voice is not heard in Parliament, which amounts to our gross abuse.”

After the controversial general elections, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party formed a coalition government after intense negotiations following a fractured poll verdict. Independent candidates – a majority backed by the PTI party – won 93 of the 265 National Assembly seats contested in the February 8 election.

The Election Commission of Pakistan said reserved seats cannot be allocated to the Sunni Ittehad Council.
| Photo Credit: AFP

“Jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party-backed Sunni Ittehad Council is not eligible for reserved seats as the party does not allow non-Muslims to be a part of it, Pakistan’s Election Commission has said in a response submitted to the Supreme Court,” according to media reports.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on June 23 filed a reply before the Supreme Court to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) plea against the rejection of its claim on reserved seats for women and minorities in the national and provincial assemblies after the general election.

The ECP said reserved seats cannot be allocated to the SIC, which is backed by 71-year-old Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), as the party failed to submit the list of nominees for the reserved seats by the deadline of December 24, Geo News reported.

The top polls body added that as per the SIC constitution, a non-Muslim person cannot be a part of the party, which is unconstitutional.

“According to the constitution of the SIC, a non-Muslim cannot become a member of the party. The provision against the inclusion of non-Muslims in the constitution of SIC is unconstitutional. The SIC is not entitled to reserved seats for women and minorities,” the election watchdog said.

It added that the independent candidates joined the SIC after the elections, after which the ECP gave the majority 4-1 verdict of not allocating the reserved seats to the party, and later the Peshawar High Court (PHC) upheld the ruling.

“SIC is not eligible for the reserved seats. There is nothing wrong with the ECP and the PHC’s decision of not giving reserved seats to SIC. The decision is in line with the laws and Constitution,” the ECP said, according to the report.

There are 70 reserved seats in the National Assembly and another 156 in the four provincial assemblies, and the SIC was not given any seat as it had not contested the election. The party gained strength when independently elected candidates backed by the PTI party joined it after the elections.

The PTI-backed independent candidates took the lead in the February 8 elections after they won the 92 National Assembly seats followed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) (79) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) (54).

The reserved seats were allocated to all political parties according to their strength in the assemblies except the PTI-backed SIC. The SIC filed a plea which was rejected by the ECP and the PHC, and subsequently, the party challenged it in the Supreme Court.

“A full Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez will hear the case of reserved seats on Monday,” the report said. Earlier, on May 6, in a major relief to the PTI, the apex court suspended the PHC’s decision about rejecting the SIC plea.

Following the ruling, the ECP on May 14 suspended the victory notifications of 77 candidates declared successful on the reserved seats.

The final ruling by the top court in the case would decide the fate of those 77 reserved seats. Though it may not change the current power structure, the changes in the overall number game in the assemblies may impact the law-making in the country.

Representational image of Pakistan Supreme Court
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The ruling coalition led by the Pakistan Muslim League -Nawaz (PML-N) in Pakistan’s Punjab has been jolted as the provincial assembly’s speaker restrained 27 lawmakers on reserved seats after the Supreme Court’s ruling suspending a lower court’s verdict denying the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) its share of reserved seats for women and minorities, according to media reports.

Speaker Malik Mohammad Ahmed Khan issued the ruling barring the women and non-Muslim members appointed to the reserved seats via past notifications of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

According to the ruling, they cannot function as members or partake in assembly proceedings until their status is clarified by either the ECP or the Supreme Court.

Of the suspended MPAs, 23 belong to the PML-N, two to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and one each to Pakistan Muslim League -Quaid-e-Azam Group (PML-Q) and Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP), the Dawn newspaper reported.

The decision by the speaker was taken on a point of order raised a day ago by opposition lawmaker Rana Aftab of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed SIC during the house proceedings.

Mr. Aftab had argued that the apex court had suspended the decision of the ECP of allocating the reserved seats of the SIC to other parties on the plea that the SIC had neither contested elections nor had submitted a list of nominees for the seats reserved for women and minorities.

But Speaker Mr. Khan ruled that he had sought the opinions of the advocate general as well as the provincial law department and would take a decision only on receiving their reports, the Dawn reported.

After the beginning of the house proceedings on May 10, the speaker soon read out the SC order and gave the ruling that Mr. Aftab’s point of order was lawful and suspended the 27 members immediately.

When Mr. Aftab pointed out that the suspended MPAs had unlawfully voted for the resolution condemning the May 9 violence, the chair said he should have raised the issue when the resolution had been put to vote a day ago.

The Supreme Court’s decision and the Punjab Assembly speaker’s action puts the ruling coalition in the National Assembly in a dilemma as it is set to lose nearly two dozen members ahead of the crucial budget session.

President Asif Ali Zardari on May 10 summoned the National Assembly session on May 13 and the SIC members are expected to seek a similar ruling from Speaker Ayaz Sadiq.

The ECP had allocated reserved seats to the parties in the National Assembly in proportion to the general seats won by them in the February 8 elections.

The ECP had withheld the notifications on 23 reserved seats — 20 for women and three for minorities — due to the dispute on the allocation of the seats after the decision of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed independents to join the SIC, the report said.

Later, the ECP refused to allocate these seats to the SIC and issued notifications distributing these seats to the parties in the ruling coalition headed by the PML-N.

The ECP allocated 15 seats reserved for women to the PML-N, four to PPP and one to the JUI-F. It allocated one seat each reserved for the minorities to the PML-N, the PPP and the MQM-P.

As a result, PML-N became the largest party in the National Assembly with 123 seats while the tally of the PPP and the JUI-F rose to 73 and 11, respectively, the report said.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that he is ready to hold talks but not to strike a “deal” with anyone who has stolen his party’s mandate in the February 8 general election.

Talking to journalists at the high-security Adiala jail in Rawalpindi on May 3, the 71-year-old Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf founder asserted that negotiations were held only with adversaries and therefore the talks should be held with those who were the biggest opponents ofPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)at present, apparently a reference to the military establishment, the Dawn newspaper reported on May 4.

Underlining that he had been saying for 18 months that he was ready to hold negotiations but not to strike a deal, Mr. Khan reiterated that his party would hold talks with everyone but the three parties, the Geo News reported.

“Someone who wants to leave the country or avoid imprisonment makes a deal,” he said, in an apparent reference to The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif.

Mr. Khan named Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub and Leader of the Opposition in Senate Shibli Faraz for holding negotiations.

“I have proposed these three names for talks and not for a deal,” he said.

The February 8 general elections delivered a fractured mandate. Independent candidates, a majority of them backed by Mr. Khan’s PTI, won 93 seats in the 336-member National Assembly. Former three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won 75 seats while the Bilawal Zardari Bhutto-led Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) came third with 54 seats. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) won 17 seats.

Mr. Khan’s PTI party has maintained that the powerful establishment had favoured Sharif’s PML-N and that the Election Commission of Pakistan deliberately used a different form to declare the results to “steal the mandate” that belonged to it.

Editorial | Pakistan in turmoil: On the Pakistan elections and results 

The PML-N struck a post-poll deal with Mr. Bhutto’s PPP and four smaller parties and formed the government in March.

Mr. Khan reiterated that he was “always ready for talks, but it could only take place when their stolen mandate was returned and innocent imprisoned workers were released,” the Dawn newspaper quoted PTI’s media department as saying on May 3.

Without naming anyone, Mr. Khan told reporters that “they” were going to lodge the fourth case against him concerning the Toshakhana gifts. They should make whatever the cases they wanted all at once, he added.

Mr. Khan’s statement came a day after PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan claimed that his party was neither holding dialogues with anyone nor had any special message for talks.

Mr. Gohar, speaking to journalists outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, said that the former premier was facing “politically motivated” cases. He added that the PTI founder requested the judiciary to give judgements on his cases at the earliest, the Geo News reported.

“Ali Amin Gandapur, Omar Ayub Khan and Shibli Faraz have been given the go-ahead to hold talks, but not to strike a deal,” Mr. Gohar said, adding that they were to talk to anyone except three political parties.