ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan today said that Sunni Ittehad Council cannot obtain the reserved seats. The court rejected the SIC’s petition seeking reserved seats.
Chief Justice of Pakistan announced the verdict of the full bench of the court on Friday. The CJP Qazi Faez Isa said that eight judges have supported the decision of the court.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan today declared invalid the Peshawar High Court about the allotment of the reserved seats to the government. Eight judges supported the decision out of the full bench comprising 13 judges. The SC verdict declared invalid the allotment of the reserved seats to the government.
The court asked the ECP to allot the reserved seats to the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf within 15 days of the order of the court.
The Supreme Court said that the decision of the Peshawar High Court and the Election Commission of Pakistan was unlawful about the allotment of the reserved seats to the government.
The court declared that the PTI is a political party and it will remain a political party. The representatives of the ECP, Sunni Ittehad Council, PTI, and attorney general were present in the court when the decision was announced. Security was tightened inside and outside the Supreme Court of Pakistan ahead of the announcement of the verdict. The city administration also suspended the Metro bus service in Islamabad.
The Supreme Court has announced its verdict today (Friday) after 12 noon on a case involving the denial of reserved seats to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
This decision follows the apex court’s full bench’s second consecutive day of consultation on the reserved seats case verdict, held on Thursday.
A special session of the country’s top court’s 13-member full bench, chaired by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, was convened, with all bench members in attendance.
The cause list published on the Supreme Court’s website indicated that a full bench led by CJP Isa will deliver the short ruling at 12 noon on Friday, regarding the SIC’s plea. This plea challenges the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) decision, which upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) move to deny the PTI-backed lawmakers reserved seats in the assemblies. On July 9, the full bench reserved the verdict of the case after holding nine hearings, during which all parties, including the federal government and the ECP, presented their arguments against the SIC’s plea.
The full bench also includes Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
Background on the Reserved Seats Case
The reserved seats issue emerged after over 80 PTI-backed independent candidates won in the February 8 elections and subsequently joined the SIC to claim seats reserved for minorities and women. However, the ECP denied these reserved seats to the SIC, citing the party’s failure to submit its list of candidates.
The party appealed to the PHC, which upheld the ECP’s decision. Consequently, the SIC approached the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the PHC verdict and secure the allocation of 67 women and 11 minority seats in the assemblies.
The PHC’s ruling, which allowed the allocation of reserved seats to the ruling coalition comprising the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and others, enabled them to secure a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. This ruling increased the PML-N’s seats to 123 and the PPP’s to 73, while the PTI-backed SIC had 82 seats.
A three-member Supreme Court bench, including Justice Mansoor, Justice Minallah, and Justice Mazhar, took up the SIC’s plea on June 6 and suspended the PHC’s verdict and the ECP’s decision on the issue. This suspension caused the coalition to lose its two-thirds majority in the lower house.
The SIC’s plea faced opposition from the federal government, the electoral body, and other political parties, including the PML-N, PPP, and Jamiat Ulam-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F). The government, through Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan, urged the apex court to reject the SIC’s plea, stressing that reserved seats for minorities and women could only be allocated to a political party that contested the polls, won at least one seat, and submitted a list of candidates based on the total number of seats it won as per the law. The ECP and other political parties presented similar arguments.
The ‘Bat Symbol’ Controversy
The reserved seats case also stems from the ECP’s December 22, 2023, decision declaring PTI’s intra-party elections unlawful, which stripped the party of its iconic ‘bat’ symbol. This decision followed a petition by a disgruntled PTI member, Akbar S Babar, claiming the party did not conduct its internal elections in accordance with the laws.
The revocation of the symbol was a significant blow to the party ahead of the February 8 elections. The PTI appealed to the PHC, which temporarily restored the ‘bat’ symbol on January 10, but the Supreme Court annulled this order three days later, upholding the ECP’s decision.
As a result, PTI candidates contested the February 8 polls as independents. Despite their victories, the ECP denied the allocation of reserved seats to the SIC due to the party’s failure to submit a list of candidates before the deadline. The reserved seats were instead distributed among other political parties, prompting the PTI to approach the PHC, which upheld the ECP’s decision.
The SIC then moved the apex court, seeking to overturn the PHC verdict and secure the allocation of reserved seats for women and minorities. The PHC’s verdict resulted in the loss of 77 reserved seats for the PTI-backed independents in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
