Daily Times

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has submitted a list of the candidates for the reserved seats to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), picking Sanam Javed, Aliya Hamza Malik, Yasmin Rashid among others for the seats reserved in assemblies for women and minorities, party sources said on Friday.

The development came after the Supreme Court, in its July 12 short order in the reserved seats case, allowed the former ruling party to have reserved seats in assemblies, paving the way for the party to potentially become the largest parliamentary party.

In the landmark ruling, the apex court directed the PTI to submit a list of its eligible candidates for reserved seats to the electoral body within 15 days of the verdict. The ECP should then publish the list of reserved seats of the candidates on its website within seven days, the SC ruling stated.

Complying with the short order of the top court, the PTI today submitted the list of its candidates for the reserved in national, Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies, according to the sources.

The list includes 67 names for seats reserved for women and 11 for minorities seats, sources said, adding the names of Javed, Hamza, Kanwal Shauzab, Rubina Shaheen and Seemabia Tahir have been chosen for the National Assembly reserved seats for women.

Meanwhile, Lal Chand Malhi has been nominated by the party for the minority seat in the lower house of parliament, the PTI sources said, adding Dr Yasmin Rashid has been named for the reserved seat for women in Punjab Assembly.

A day earlier the polls regulator declared 39 PTI lawmakers – who contested the February 8 elections as independent candidates and later joined the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) – as PTI members in line with the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Earlier this week, the PTI submitted relevant documents with declaration of party’s affiliation to the Election Commission to be entitled to have reserved seats in the assemblies in line with the court’s order.

Having been deprived of its election symbol, the PTI’s candidates contested the February 8 elections as independents. However, these independents were directed by the party to join the SIC to be eligible for the reserved seats.

The SIC in multiple petitions, pleaded with the top court to allow the party to have reserved seats in legislature. On July 12, the court announced its short order in the PTI’s favour.

However, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) filed a review petition against the SC ruling declaring the PTI eligible for the reserved seats.