ISLAMABAD: The full bench of the Supreme Court is set to resume the hearing of the Sunni Ittehad Council’s case regarding the allocation of reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies.
The bench, consisting of Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, will preside over the case.
Members of Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), had to run as independent candidates in the February national elections after the Supreme Court ruled the party’s internal elections flawed. Consequently, PTI candidates were barred from using the party’s cricket bat symbol during the campaign.
Despite running as independents, PTI-backed candidates secured the most seats in the National Assembly, forming the largest single bloc. However, lacking their original party identity, they opted to join the coalition government known as the SIC rather than forming their own government.
Reserved seats are allocated to political parties in proportion to the general seats won during elections, promoting political representation and inclusion of traditionally underrepresented groups in the government.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided not to allocate these reserved seats to the PTI-backed candidates on technical grounds, redistributing the SIC’s share among other parties.
Justice Munib Akhtar, a member of the 13-judge bench, noted that the candidates elected as independents were actually PTI members who were forced to run independently due to legal errors by the ECP.
The Supreme Court had previously suspended the Peshawar High Court’s verdict, which upheld the ECP’s decision.
The outcome of this case holds political significance and could impact the composition of the National Assembly.
PTI hopes to secure 78 reserved seats in parliament that were previously allocated to rival parties in the elections.
