ISLAMABAD: Following the Supreme Court’s order on the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) petition regarding reserved seats, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday suspended 77 lawmakers elected to seats denied to the party.
The reserved seats issue has been a contentious point between the SIC, which primarily comprises Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed independent candidates, and the ruling parties, notably Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), and others.
Dozens of members from the PPP, PML-N, MQM-P, Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), and other parties had taken oath on reserved seats in various assemblies across the country following the PHC’s verdict.
The ruling PML-N is the biggest loser, with 44 of its members suspended, while 15 lawmakers from PPP, 13 from JUI-F, and one each from MQM-P, Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party, Awami National Party, Pakistan Muslim League, and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians were also suspended.
Following the top court’s order, the ECP withdrew the notification of 22 returned candidates who were allotted seats in the National Assembly. Among these, 11 are female lawmakers from Punjab, 8 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 3 minority seats in the lower house.
Additionally, in the KP Assembly, 21 lawmakers on reserved seats for women and 4 for minorities have been de-notified. In the Punjab Assembly, 24 women lawmakers and 3 non-Muslim legislators have been de-notified. In the Sindh Assembly, the commission de-notified 2 female MPs and a minority member.
All the de-notified lawmakers belong to the PML-N, PPP, MQM-P, JUI-F, Awami National Party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-Parliamentarians (PTI-P), Pakistan Muslim-League-Quaid (PML-Q), and Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP).
Supreme Court Order
Last week, the apex court suspended the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) verdict on reserved seats while accepting the SIC’s plea against the high court’s ruling.
The ECP had initially rejected the party’s plea, depriving it of reserved seats.
“We are accepting the [SIC’s] pleas [against the PHC verdict],” Justice Mansoor Ali Shah stated, and questioned under what law the reserved seats were allocated to other parties.
A three-member bench, headed by Justice Shah and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah, heard the SIC’s plea filed through Advocate Faisal Siddiqui last month.
Barring the members who have taken oath on the reserved seats from casting their votes in legislation, the SC announced it would hear the case on a daily basis from June 3.
Furthermore, the court noted that the issue only concerns the additional reserved seats allotted to the political parties later on.
The Case
In March, a five-member PHC bench, headed by then Chief Justice Ibrahim Khan and comprising Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, Justice Ijaz Anwar, Justice Arshad Ali, and Justice Shakeel Ahmad, rejected the SIC’s petition against the ECP’s decision depriving it of reserved seats.
The ECP had ruled that the SIC was not eligible for reserved seats allotted to women and minorities “due to non-curable procedural and legal defects and violations of mandatory provisions of the Constitution.”
While rejecting the SIC’s plea, the ECP accepted applications from the opposing parties and decided that the seats in the National Assembly would not remain vacant but be allocated through a proportional representation process based on the number of seats won by political parties.
In response, the SIC moved the Supreme Court last month, urging the apex court to allot the party the 67 women and 11 minority seats in the National and provincial assemblies and to set aside the PHC ruling.
The SIC’s plea contends that reserved seats for women and minorities are given to the parties in the national and provincial assemblies based on proportional representation, and no party can be allocated more reserved seats than its representation.
