In a significant blow to Pakistan’s ruling coalition, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has officially recognized 39 successful MPs as members of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, following a pivotal Supreme Court ruling.
This ECP decision could potentially make PTI the largest political party in Parliament.
The ECP’s move implements the Supreme Court’s July 12 verdict, which affirmed PTI’s status as a legitimate political party and allowed lawmakers elected as independents to join it.
Despite being barred from nominating candidates for the February 8 general elections due to the loss of its cricket bat symbol—a result of failing to hold internal elections—PTI-backed independent candidates secured the most seats.
Subsequently, PTI sought to join the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) to gain a share of reserved seats for women and minorities. However, the ECP denied SIC these reserved seats, arguing that SIC had not won any seats and its members were elected independently.
The SIC’s appeal to the Peshawar High Court was dismissed.
The issue was then escalated to the Supreme Court, which on July 12 ruled that PTI was a legitimate party eligible for reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies. This ruling allowed independent MPs who were supported by PTI to join the party.
Previously, PTI’s 80 elected members had joined SIC.
The court clarified that 39 of the members listed by the ECP as PTI candidates were indeed affiliated with the party. The remaining 41 independents were required to submit notarized statements within 15 days confirming their affiliation with a political party during the February 8 elections.
The ECP observed that the 39 members had declared their PTI affiliation in their nomination papers before the elections.
”The 41 candidates who have been declared independent had neither mentioned PTI in their nomination papers nor disclosed their affiliation with the party. And also did not submit any party ticket. Therefore, the returning officers allowed them to participate in the election as independent candidates,” the ECP had explained.
The ECP notification stated, “returned candidates against general seats of National Assembly are declared to have been returned as candidates” of PTI.
The ruling coalition has contested the Supreme Court’s decision regarding reserved seats. Both the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have filed separate review petitions with the Supreme Court, which has yet to schedule hearings for them.
This judgment is a major blow to the government, as PTI is poised to become the largest party in the National Assembly by securing reserved seats and the additional 41 lawmakers.
It also undermines the ruling coalition’s ability to achieve a two-thirds majority needed to amend the Constitution, reducing its strength from 228 to 209. In a 336-member House, a two-thirds majority requires 224 votes.
Of the 22 reserved seats allocated to PTI, the ECP assigned 14 to PML-N, five to PPP, and three to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam.