In a much-awaited decision Friday, Pakistan’s top court declared former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party was entitled to its share of reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies, handing the incarcerated leader’s supporters a major legal victory.
The 8-5 decision, broadcast live, overturned an earlier verdict of the Peshawar High Court and backed by a provisional court that deprived Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, of close to 80 reserved seats in the national and provincial legislatures.
The decision that will see more than 20 seats in the National Assembly go to PTI deprives Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition of a two-thirds majority. However, with more than 200 seats in hand, it will retain a majority required to rule in the body of 336.
PTI leaders hailed the victory, calling it a golden day in Pakistan’s history.
“It is a day of joy for supporters in and outside Pakistan. We finally got our right,” PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan told media outside the court.
The court’s short order affecting the makeup of national and provincial assemblies comes five months after Pakistan went to the polls on February 8. The election that saw PTI-backed candidates win the largest number of seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of the country’s bicameral parliament, faced widespread allegations of pre-poll rigging and result manipulation.
The election commission and Sharif’s ruling coalition have rejected foreign calls to investigate alleged electoral discrepancies. Addressing a press conference soon after the verdict came, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar told the media the decision was painful.
“It’s painful that the articles of the constitution were not interpreted but rewritten,” Tarar said.
He said repealing the verdict would be the Cabinet’s decision.
