ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned the session of the National Assembly on July 30 (Tuesday).

This will be the first NA session after the Supreme Court’s July 12 decision declaring the opposition PTI eligible to receive reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the national and provincial assemblies, declaring it to be a parliamentary party.

As a result of the SC verdict, the PTI has now become the single largest party in the National Asse­mbly, while the ruling coalition is set to lose its two-thirds majority.

The number of lawmakers belonging to the PTI — including those who had earlier been called PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council candidates — collectively came to 92. After getting 22 reserved seats in the NA, which had earlier been distributed by the Election Com­m­i­ssion of Pakistan among three political parties, its number has now surged to 114, and the total strength of the opposition in the assembly has now reached 125.

On the other hand, the strength of the ruling coalition has been reduced to 209, 15 short of 224 required to attain a two-thirds majority in the House of 336.

The president has summoned the NA session a day after the PTI submitted to the ECP a list of candid­a­t­­es for reserved seats for women and minorities in the National As­­sembly and three provincial assemblies.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2024