RAWALPINDI, Oct 27 The Lahore High Court directed Election Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday to allocate one seat reserved for women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly to Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl. A division bench of the LHC directed the EC to recalculate the allocation of reserved seats in the KP assembly in accordance with the results of 35 general seats in the 2008 general election and decide the matter within a month.

Justice Sagheer Ahmed Qadri and Justice Ijaz Ahmed of the LHC's Rawalpindi bench accepted the petition filed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman as the party chief and Naeema Kishwar as the party candidate for the reserved seat.

Advocate Kamran Murtaza, who is representing the petitioner, told Dawn that an official of the EC had conceded that recalculation was necessary as the allocation for the reserved seats was made before the announcement of results for the total 35 general seats in the KP assembly.

The lawyer said that in 2008 when results for 31 seats of the KP assembly were announced both the PPP and ANP obtained 10 seats each and got three reserved seats each.

The PML-N obtained four general seats and got one women seat with both the PML-Q and JUI-F got three seats each. The EC has to decide the remaining one seat through a draw between the PML-Q and JUI-F.

The lawyer said in the results announced later the PML-Q got another general seat and the remaining reserved seat was given to it. But, he added, the results announced later showed that the JUI-F also obtained another seat which had once again made the party position of both the parties in the assembly equal.

The petitioner moved the now defunct Islamabad High Court in March, 2008, pleading that the EC was giving his party the reserved seat it deserved.

The lawyer said now the ANP or PPP had to abandon one of their reserved seats for women through a draw between them.