Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan gestures for a photograph. File photo

Pakistan’s top court on Friday found that the party of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan was improperly denied at least 20 seats in parliament, in a significant blow to the country’s fragile governing coalition.

The ruling by the Supreme Court was hailed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, which was previously excluded from a system that gives parties extra seats reserved for women and minorities in the National Assembly or lower house of the parliament.

Though the verdict is a major political win for Khan, it will not put his party in a position to oust the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who came into power following a Feb. 8 election that Khan allies say was rigged.

PTI's chairman Gohar Khan hailed the court's ruling, saying they got justice from the judiciary. "This is a day of joy,” he said, urging his supporters to peacefully celebrate their victory in the lingering legal battle.

Azam Nazeer Tarar, the law minister in Sharif’s Cabinet, told reporters that the verdict does not threaten their coalition government, which enjoys the required support of lawmakers in the parliament.

Pakistan's constitution reserves 60 seats for women and 10 for minorities, doling them out to political parties in proportion to the number of seats they win in elections.

Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party Gohar Khan (centre) talks to the media in Islamabad on Friday. AP

Pakistan's Election Commission blocked the PTI from participating as a party, saying it had not properly chosen its candidates through internal elections and forcing its candidates to run as independents. The Supreme Court overruled that decision, saying that a political party could not be deprived of its reserved seats.

Sharif was elected premier by the National Assembly in March, with 201 votes in a 336-member house. The PTI is expected to get at least 20 more seats after the ruling, adding to the 86 it currently holds.

Khan is currently in prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi after convictions in multiple cases.

"As a political party, the PTI is entitled to its reserved seats," said Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa while reading out the order, which was supported by eight judges and opposed by five of the 13-member full court bench.

The granting of 23 reserved seats does not affect the parliamentary majority of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's coalition government.

Under Pakistan's election rules, parties are allocated 70 reserved seats — 60 for women, 10 for non-Muslims — in proportion to the number of seats they win. This completes the National Assembly's total strength of 336 seats.

The decision does however bolster the political position of Khan's supporters, whose rallying cry has been that the election commission and a pro-military caretaker government that oversaw the polls indulged in electoral fraud to deprive it of a victory.

 
Supporters of Imran Khan celebrate after a Supreme Court verdict in Karachi on Friday. AFP

The commission and military deny the charges, but questions have been raised in the West about the transparency of the polls.

The US House of Representatives, as well as European countries, have called on Islamabad to open a probe into the allegations — a move that Pakistan has thus far rejected.

Khan was ousted from power in 2022 after he fell out with the country's powerful military generals. The military denies it interferes in politics.

Agencies