The allocation of reserved seats to political parties and the ensuing litigation, which has continued for the past one and a half years, requires a deeper analysis of the constitutional and legal provisions, as well as the objective of these reserved seats within the constitutional and electoral framework.

These reserved seats are seriously undermining the democratic and legislative process in Pakistan, as they fail to reflect the will of the people. They are in no way promoting the underprivileged classes of women and religious minorities for whom these seats were intended, and have instead become a tool for obtaining legislative majorities and achieving specific agendas.

The national and provincial assemblies are the people’s houses, modelled on the Westminster system of the House of Commons, representing the will of the people and elected through direct vote. In Pakistan, approximately 20 per cent (70 seats) of the National Assembly and 156 seats in the provincial assemblies (PAs) are filled indirectly through party lists, under the guise of reserved seats for women and minorities. This changes the constitutional scheme and raison d’être of these people’s assemblies.

The objective of these reserved seats was to protect and promote underprivileged classes identified by the constitution-makers in the context of prevailing social and economic conditions. However, data shows that the majority of these seats usually go to family members, near and distant relatives of political leaders and party members, and a crop of loyalists attached to these parties, while common citizens are ignored. A genuine party worker is only occasionally given a reserved seat.

The procedure for allocation or election to these seats has also been fundamentally changed, and it has lost even the semblance of indirect elections. By Presidential Order 14 of 1985, the number of these reserved seats for women was merely doubled from 10 to 20, and 10 seats were added for minorities, but the manner of elections thereto remained the same. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), through........

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