Imran Khan’s party to petition Supreme Court after Peshawar court declines reserved parliamentary seats

In this handout photo, taken and released by the Government of Pakistan, members of Pakistan’s lower house of the parliament attend the National Assembly meeting in Islamabad on March 1, 2024. (Photo courtesy: Facebook/ NationalAssemblyOfPakistan)

• Decision represents a further setback to Khan who is in jail following a string of convictions
• Peshawar court’s decision will bolster parliamentary strength of fragile ruling coalition

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan has said it will petition the Supreme Court against a ruling by a Peshawar court that a party aligned with candidates backed by the ex-premier was not eligible for extra reserved seats in the legislature.
The Peshawar High Court’s Thursday ruling was another blow to the embattled group’s governing prospects and represents a setback for Khan, who is in jail following a string of convictions, despite his candidates winning the most seats overall, 93, in the Feb. 8 national election.
Khan’s PTI party couldn’t contest the election under its traditional electoral symbol, a cricket bat, which was denied on technical grounds. The PTI subsequently struck an alliance with another party, the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), in a bid to secure reserved seats.
On Mar. 4, the Election Commission had ruled that the SIC was not eligible for reserved seats, a decision the alliance had appealed in the Peshawar High Court, which unanimously rejected the petitions on Thursday.
“We appeal the election commission and the higher judiciary to stop this process [of denying PTI its reserved seats],” PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan told reporters on Friday, as he announced that the party would appeal the ruling in the Supreme Court. 
The Election Commission and Peshawar court decisions will bolster the parliamentary strength of the fragile coalition that has taken oath office, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), with support from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Under Pakistan’s election rules, parties are allocated 70 reserved seats — 60 for women, 10 for non-Muslims — in proportion to the number of seats they win. This completes the National Assembly’s total strength of 336 seats.
Khan-backed candidates had to run as independents after the election commission stripped his party of its famous cricket bat symbol on ballot papers on the grounds that it failed to conduct an intra-party election, a prerequisite for any party to take part in polls. The PTI says the move was a rude to undermine its popularity and keep it from winning a maximum number of seats in general elections. 
Without the unifying bat symbol, all PTI candidates had to run as independents, each with a distinct symbol, which possibly led to confusion in a country where over 40 percent of the population is illiterate.