Pakistan's Supreme Court on Friday granted jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's party around 20 seats in parliament reserved for women and minorities, months after national elections marred by allegations of pre-poll rigging.
In February polls, candidates loyal to Imran Khan won the largest share of seats -- despite being forced by an election commission ruling to contest as independents.
They were kept from power however by an alliance of military-backed parties.
"Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was and is a political party which secured and won… general seats in the national and provincial assemblies in the general elections of 2024," said the majority decision read by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah.
"It is declared that lack or denial of an election symbol doesn't in any manner affect the constitutional or legal rights of a political party to participate in an election."
"PTI shall be entitled to reserved seats for women and minorities in the national assembly accordingly," he added.
Unelected seats reserved for women and non-Muslims are handed out to parties in proportion to the number of elected seats they secured.
The ruling weakens the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
His Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party is propped up by a coalition of religious and regional parties and a supply and demand deal with long-term rivals the Pakistan Peoples Party.
Gallup Pakistan analyst Bilal Gilani told AFP that "PTI would try for making a political point about this -- that the government is shaky and could fall".
"It validates their feeling that they've been victimised", he added, but noted "the majority still lies with the current coalition".
Law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar told reporters in Islamabad "there is no challenge to the government".
In order to stand as a bloc in the National Assembly, candidates loyal to Khan had aligned with a lesser-known party, the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
The Election Commission of Pakistan had earlier ruled against handing the reserved seats to SIC or PTI.
In the lead up to the February polls, PTI candidates were targeted by arrests and censorship, while a mobile service blackout on polling day and delayed results gave rise to allegations of vote tampering.
Already detained in custody over dozens of legal cases, Khan was convicted in the days before the polls for a trio of offences that saw him sentenced to 14 years in prison.
A UN panel of experts said this month that Khan's detention "had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office".
A treason conviction carrying a decade-long sentence was overturned in April and a 14-year sentence for graft suspended in June, though the conviction stands.
An appeal decision is pending over his conviction for breaking Islamic law by marrying his wife Bushra Bibi too soon after her divorce.
Source: AFP