ISLAMABAD: Getting a simple majority in the 342-seat National Assembly has become an uphill task for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as despite all-out efforts the party, which emerged as the biggest political force of the country in July 25 polls, is still far off from reaching the magical figure of 172.
At the moment, the PTI even if it gets the support of smaller allied parties including the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and independents and adds candidates on reserved seats still has 168 seats and is four members short of a simple majority in the lower house of parliament.
Interestingly on the day of voting for the election of the next prime minister, the number 168 will further reduce to 161 given the fact that all those MNAs-elect belonging to ruling coalition who have won multiple seats will have to retain only one seat and vacate the other ones.
Article 91 of the Constitution describes criteria to elect a prime minister. Its subsection 4 says: “Prime Minister shall be elected by the votes of the majority of the total membership of the National Assembly.”
The total membership of the National Assembly is 342 and majority can be attained by securing the support of 172 MNAs. Currently, the PTI has 160 votes in total. However, it does not mean that if one fails to get a simple majority, they cannot become the prime minister.
“Provided that, if no member secures such majority (simple majority) in the first poll, a second poll shall be held between the members who secure the two highest numbers of votes in the first poll and the member who secures a majority of votes of the members present and voting shall be declared to have been elected as Prime Minister,” subsection 4 further reads.
The current situation suggests that prime minister in waiting for Imran Khan will not be able to secure a simple majority. However, he will be elected by securing ‘majority of votes of the members’ who will be present in the House on voting day.
The PTI will be able to get roughly 25 reserved seats for women in the National Assembly i.e. 15 from Punjab, seven from K-P and three from Sindh. The PTI is also expected to get some four seats reserved for minorities in the lower house. It brings the party’s total strength to 149 seats.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) on Monday pledged its all-out support for the PTI at the Centre and in Punjab also. The PML-Q has four seats.
The PTI is also in talks with the MQM. Even if the MQM becomes an ally of the PTI, collectively all the coalition partners including the MQM-P will be able to bring 19 more seats.