ECP suspends 77 lawmakers elected on reserved seats in light of SC verdict

ISLAMABAD–The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) suspended the membership of 77 MPs on Monday following the Supreme Court’s judgment on reserved seats.

Last week, the Supreme Court postponed the judgment of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to allocate Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) reserved seats to other parties.

The ruling PML-N will suffer the most, with 44 of its legislators losing their seats as a result of the Supreme Court verdict.

Previously, SIC reserved seats were dispersed throughout the country to other parties such as the PML-N, PPP, JUI-F, MQM-P, and PML-Q.

The Supreme Court judgment was initially executed by Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, who suspended the membership of 27 MPAs last week.

The ruling alliance in Punjab lost 24 female lawmakers and three minority MPAs as a result of the Supreme Court’s verdict.

Also Read: PA Speaker suspends 27 MPAs in light of Supreme Court’s judgment on reserved seats.

PML-N suspended 23 MPAs, PPP suspended two, while IPP and PML-Q suspended one apiece.

On March 4, the ECP approved proposals from opposing parties and ruled that seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies would not be left vacant and would be distributed using a proportional representation procedure based on seats won by political parties.

The development resulted in the PTI-backed SIC losing 77 reserved seats: 23 National Assembly seats (20 women and 3 minorities), 25 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seats (21 women and 4 minorities), two Sindh Assembly seats (women), and 27 Punjab Assembly seats (24 women and 3 minorities).

Read more: Supreme Court suspends PHC and ECP orders on reserved seats.

The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) had also filed applications seeking reserved seats for women and minorities, which the Peshawar High Court denied.

The party had appealed the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to not allocate reserved women and minorities seats to the SIC.