ISLAMABAD: As the Supreme Court took up the case of reserved seats, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail noted that the public did not vote for independent candidates but those nominated by the PTI in the February 8 general elections.
Justice Mandokhail noted, “The public did not vote for an independent candidate but rather the candidates being supported by a political party”. “This was the people’s right; the people voted for the PTI,” he added.
His remarks came as a full bench of the Supreme Court heard the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) plea against the denial of reserved seats in assemblies for women and minorities.The SIC had earlier been joined by PTI-backed independent candidates after they won the Feb 8 elections as their party had been deprived of its electoral symbol ‘bat’ in an SC ruling.
On May 6, a three-member SC bench had suspended the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) verdict denying the SIC — the new home for PTI lawmakers-elect — reserved seats.
Later the same month, the PPP — a major beneficiary along with the PML-N of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) March 3 verdict to distribute the seats among other parliamentary parties — nominated senior counsel Farooq H. Naek to represent the party in the case.
In accordance with the apex court’s May 6 ruling, the ECP had then suspended victory notifications of 77 lawmakers allocated reserved seats in addition to the ones distributed earlier, causing the ruling coalition to lose its two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.
Last week, a full court had been formed to hear the case, comprising all judges except Justice Musarrat Hilali.
Subsequently, a 13-member bench — comprising Justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Munib Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Aminuddin Khan, Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Ayesha Malik, Athar Minallah, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Shahid Waheed, Irfan Saadat Khan and Naeem Akhtar Afghan — resumed hearing the case today.
The proceedings were broadcast live on the SC’s website and its YouTube channel.Advocate Salman Akram Raja appeared as the SIC counsel while Faisal Siddiqi was present on behalf of the party’s female candidates who were denied the reserved seats. PTI MNA Barrister Gohar Ali Khan was also present while Sikandar Bashir Momand appeared as the ECP lawyer.
