Appeal filed in Supreme Court over minority reserved seats
An appeal has been filed in the Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry challenging the Lahore High Court’s decision dismissing a constitutional petition seeking an increase in the number of reserved seats for minorities in the National and Provincial Assemblies in line with the country’s population growth.
The constitutional appeal has been filed by advocate Naseeb Masih, who has made the Federal Government, the President of Pakistan, and the Secretary for Law and Parliamentary Affairs respondents in the case.
The appellant contended that the Lahore High Court failed to correctly appreciate the legal and constitutional issues raised in the petition. It was argued that the number of reserved seats for minorities should have been increased following successive population censuses, but this constitutional requirement had been ignored.
According to the appeal, the minority population has grown at a rate comparable to the Muslim population, yet the number of reserved seats allocated to minorities has remained unchanged. It was further submitted that representation for women has also not been increased proportionately to the growth in population.
The petitioner maintained that the Constitution currently provides 10 reserved seats for minorities in the National Assembly, while the Punjab Assembly has eight reserved minority seats, Sindh nine, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa four, and Balochistan four.
The appeal states that these allocations were originally based on the 1981 Population Census, following a Presidential Order issued in 1985, under which 10 minority seats were reserved in the National Assembly when the House consisted of 207 general seats.
It further points out that under the Legal Framework Order (LFO) 2002, the number of general seats in the National Assembly was increased to 272, and 60 seats were reserved for women.
However, despite these constitutional changes, the number of reserved seats for minorities was not increased.
Similarly, the appeal notes that the number of general seats in the Punjab Assembly was enhanced from 240 to 297, while the number of reserved seats for women was increased to 60. However, the number of minority seats remained fixed at eight, despite the increase in the province’s population.
The petitioner has requested the Supreme Court to set aside the Lahore High Court’s judgment and direct the relevant authorities to increase the number of reserved seats for minorities in the National and Provincial Assemblies in proportion to the country’s population, ensuring equitable constitutional representation for minority communities.
