The waiting is over. Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Election Commissioner Raja Shahbaz Khan settled three contested election petitions Wednesday, handing PPP 11 seats and wrapping up the messy aftermath of June 7 polling. Rivals had challenged Form-47 results at the ballot box. The CEC heard both sides, suspended the original count, then announced his verdict.
PPP candidate Attaullah won GBA-16 Diamer-II, while PML-N claimed GBA-17 and GBA-13 Astore-I. The two largest parties now control the assembly majority between them. Independents who switched to the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party at the last minute picked up four seats. PTI-backed candidates managed two. Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen secured one.
What Happens Next With Reserved Seats
Raja Shahbaz Khan said notifications for elected candidates would drop immediately. The harder math comes now. Six women’s seats and three technocrat slots will be distributed based on each party’s final strength in the assembly. That’s where smaller players hope to grab influence they didn’t win at the ballot.
The road here wasn’t clean. Supporters of independent candidate Imam Malik from GBA-16 blocked the Karakoram Highway at Chilas demanding fresh polling at specific stations. The CEC ordered re-polling at three stations, then yanked that decision. He deferred results for two constituencies until today.
Rights Group Questions Election Administration
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan isn’t buying the clean finish. HRCP flagged the abrupt reversal on re-polling in five constituencies as dangerous to public trust. Opposition parties had already aired suspicions that recounting could be weaponized to shape government formation. When the CEC suddenly dropped the re-polling plan, those claims gained weight.
The turnout itself was solid—70 percent showed up June 7. Raja Shahbaz Khan called that a sign of public faith in democracy. But HRCP’s caution signals something different: fast reversals and late-night verdicts don’t build confidence in electoral administration, even when numbers look right.
PTI and other opposition groups already labeled the results a rerun of 2024 elections, flinging rigging charges before the CEC even ruled. Whether today’s decisions quiet those voices or intensify them depends on what happens next when the assembly actually forms.
