On Thursday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) officially recognized 39 MNAs as PTI lawmakers, following a Supreme Court ruling on reserved seats. The announcement came during a session led by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja.
The ECP had previously decided to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision, despite the ruling highlighting issues with PTI’s internal elections. The Commission clarified that it did not validate the intra-party elections but based its decision on the fact that candidates lacked official PTI endorsements when submitting their nomination papers.
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The Supreme Court’s decision overturned a previous Peshawar High Court ruling, which had denied reserved seats to PTI. The court’s 8-5 majority verdict mandated the allocation of these seats to PTI, which had seen a substantial number of independent candidates affiliated with it win in the February elections. The ECP had initially denied these seats due to procedural issues, but the Supreme Court’s ruling reversed that decision.
