Imran Khan’s party demands fresh allocation of reserved seats in one of Pakistan’s province

Peshawar: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has filed a writ petition in the Peshawar High Court, praying to declare PTI-backed independent members of the provincial assembly as that of the party and also to allocate reserved seats afresh on its basis.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), founded by the incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan, is the ruling party in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly and had formed the government after February 2024 general elections.

The Federal government, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), various political parties and relevant institutions have been made respondents in Gandapur’s petition filed on Thursday.

The seats reserved for women and minorities are proportionally awarded to the political parties on the basis of their numerical strength in the assemblies.

The chief minister has challenged Section 94 (4) of Election Rules 2017. In his petition, filed through a panel of lawyers, including Qazi Mohammad Anwar, Alam Khan Adenzai and Basheer Wazir, Gandapur maintained that the 13 member bench of the Supreme Court has declared PTI a political entity.

The petitioner claimed that the ECP had misinterpreted a Supreme Court judgment and had declared PTI candidates as independent.

According to the petition, the ECP removed PTI from the definition of a political party based on the absence of an electoral symbol, citing provisions under the

Election Rules.