The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), an ally of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), filed a plea on Monday, appealing the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) decision to deny it reserved seats for women and minorities. The Supreme Court’s full court bench heard the case.
The bench, consisting of 13 justices, is led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa. Justice Musarrat Hilali is not present owing to a cardiac condition.
The PHC ruling was suspended on May 6 by a three-judge Supreme Court bench led by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and consisting of Justices Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Athar Minallah. The case was referred to the judges’ committee for the formation of a larger bench because it required constitutional interpretation.
The court noted in its written order that the issues surrounding the distribution of reserved seats in the national and local assemblies bear on the fundamental constitutional tenet of parliamentary democracy, which is that the assemblies’ makeup truly reflects the will of the people.
After the PHC denied SIC’s request for reserved seats, the case was taken to the Supreme Court.
In addition to pleading for the high court’s decision to be overturned, SIC chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza and the speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly filed appeals against the PHC’s ruling in April. They requested that the party be granted 67 seats in the assemblies for women and 11 seats for minorities.
The Election Commission of Pakistan determined after the general elections on February 8 that the SIC would not receive reserved seats for women and minorities as the SIC had not yet filed its list of candidates for those seats. The PHC affirmed the ruling as well.
However, the PHC order was put on hold when the ruling was contested in the Supreme Court.
In accordance with the SC’s ruling, the ECP halted the 77 legislators’ victory notifications who were elected to reserved seats that the SIC was not granted.
After the PTI-backed independent candidates, who emerged victorious in the polls on February 8, joined the Hamid Raza-led SIC, their party lost its electoral emblem, the “bat.”
However, the commission’s ruling in March disallowed PTI’s effort to claim the reserved seats, stating that the SIC was not authorized to do so “due to having non curable legal defects and violation of a mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats.”
The commission divided the allocated seats among other parties in addition to refusing SIC’s request.
