The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) notifications regarding the allocation of reserved seats for women and minorities in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly, citing inconsistencies in the calculation of party positions.

The court announced a two-page reserved verdict on a petition filed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), challenging the ECP’s decisions on reserved seats. In its ruling, the court directed that no oath should be administered on the currently allocated reserved seats until the Election Commission makes a fresh decision.

The court ordered the ECP to complete the process within ten days, ensuring that all stakeholders are given a fair opportunity to present their case.

The decision came in response to a petition filed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which challenged the ECP’s method of allocating reserved seats based on what it termed as “incomplete party positions.”

A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Dr. Khurshid Iqbal issued the verdict, nullifying both ECP notifications and ordering the Commission to conduct a fresh allocation of reserved seats after hearing all relevant political parties — including PML-N, PPPP, JUI-F, ANP, and PTI, within ten days.

During the proceedings, the petitioner’s counsel informed the court that the KP Assembly has 26 reserved seats for women and 4 for minorities. He argued that Malik Tariq Awan, an independent candidate who won from PK-82, joined PML-N on February 23, a day after his victory notification was issued. The party submitted his joining letter to the ECP on the same day.

With Awan’s inclusion, PML-N’s strength in the assembly increased to seven seats, which should have impacted the number of reserved seats allotted to the party.

However, the ECP’s notification on March 4 awarded one minority seat each to JUI-F, PML-N, and PPP, while leaving the fourth vacant to be decided via a draw between JUI-F and PML-N. For the women’s reserved seats, the ECP counted only six members for PML-N, disregarding Awan’s timely joining.