PESHAWAR: Following the Constitutional Bench’s decision to render the PTI ineligible for reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies, the number of opposition members in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly is expected to jump from 27 to 52.
Currently, the 120-strong house has 93 PTI-backed MPAs, who were elected as independents, while 25 seats reserved for women and non-Muslims were vacant due to the cases pending before the apex court.
After the increase in their strength, the opposition members will be in a position to requisition assembly sessions. So far, they did not have sufficient numbers for the purpose.
Friday’s judgement restored several March 2024 notifications of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to declare 25 candidates of opposition parties elected to reserved seats in the provincial assembly.
On May 13, 2024, the ECP had suspended several notifications, declaring MNAs and MPAs as returned on reserved seats, in light of an earlier order of the Supreme Court.
Through those notifications, 21 of the MPAs elected on seats reserved for women and four MPAs elected on seats reserved for non-Muslims were suspended.
The suspended MPAs-elect included eight from the JUI-F, six from the PML-N, five from PPP and one each from Awami National Party and Pervez Khattak’s PTI-Parliamentarians.
Similarly, out of the four seats reserved for non-Muslims, two were allocated to the JUI-F and one each to the PML-N and PPP.
Presently, out of 27 opposition MPAs, nine each belong to the JUI-F and the PML-N, five to PPP and two to each ANP and PTI-P.
Following the latest SC decision, the strength of the opposition will include 19 from the JUI-F, 16 of the PML-N, 11 from the PPP and three each from the ANP and PTI-P.
After the Feb 2024 general elections, the ECP issued a notification on Feb 22, 2024, about allocation of five of the total 26 seats reserved for women in the provincial assembly. Those five MPAs included two of JUI-F and PML-N each and one of PPP.
The ECP had not allocated the remaining seats to any other party as it had not decided the fate of Sunni Ittehad Council, which was joined by 87 of the PTI-backed independent MPAs.
Apart from the provincial assembly, the eight MNAs elected on reserved seats for women from KP also stood restored. These MNAs include four from PML-N, and two each from JUI-F and PPP.
Above all Senate elections have yet to be conducted in the province.
Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2025
