ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday resumed hearing a petition of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) — the new home of PTI-backed candidates — against the denial of reserved seats in assemblies for women and minorities.
A 13-member full court — comprising Justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Munib Akhtar, YahyaAfridi, Aminuddin Khan, Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Ayesha Malik, AtharMinallah, Syed HasanAzhar Rizvi, ShahidWaheed, IrfanSaadat Khan and Naeem Akhtar Afghan — has resumed hearing the case.
The proceedings are being broadcast live on the SC’s website and its YouTube channel. 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.
In a 4-1 verdict in March, the ECP had ruled that the SIC was not entitled to claim quota for reserved seats “due to having non-curable legal defects and violation of a mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats”.
The commission had also decided to distribute the seats among other parliamentary parties, with the PML-N and the PPP becoming major beneficiaries with 16 and five additional seats while the JamiatUlema-i-Islam—Fazl (JUI-F) was given four. Meanwhile, the verdict was rejected by the PTI as unconstitutional.
Later the same month, while ruling on an SIC plea, the PHC had dismissed an SIC plea challenging the ECP decision and denied it reserved seats. On May 6, a three-member SC bench, hearing a petition filed by the SIC, suspended the PHC verdict to the extent of reserved seats distributed over and above the initially allocated ones to political parties.
In accordance with the apex court’s ruling, the ECP had then suspended victory notifications of 77 lawmakers, causing the ruling coalition to lose its two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. In late May, a full court had been constituted to hear the case, comprising all judges except Justice MusarratHilali.
As the case was taken up on June 3, Justice Mandokhail had noted that the public did not vote for independent candidates but those nominated by the PTI in the February 8 general elections.
