With only one day left before the first session of the National Assembly is convened, the Election Com­m­ission of Pakistan (ECP) has yet to clear the air over the allocation of reserved seats to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), following a PTI-SIC ‘merger’ for this very purpose.

During a hearing on a set of petitions filed against the proposed allocation of seats to the SIC as demanded by the PTI, it emerged that the PML-N, PPP, and the MQM-P opposed the distribution of the remaining reserved seats to the SIC, saying it could not be called a parliamentary party.

Interestingly, a five-member bench headed by Chief Election Commi­ssioner Sikandar Sultan Raja did not take up the SIC’s plea, filed last week, seeking the allocation of reserved seats.

The bench, however, took up the petitions filed against the SIC application — two of these applications were added to the cause list on Monday night. The SIC application has been clubbed together with the other parties’ pleas and the ECP will take these up today (Wednesday).

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