ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa expressed surprise on Monday over Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) decision to merge with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) ahead of the February 8 elections, likening it to “committing suicide.”
The CJP’s comments were made during a hearing of a petition filed by SIC, an ally of PTI, challenging the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) verdict that denied reserved seats for women and minorities in the national and provincial assemblies.
The hearing was conducted by a full court 13-member bench, headed by CJP Isa, and including 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 Ayesha A Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
“Why did the independent candidates leave PTI when it is a political party? Why did you commit suicide by joining another party which goes against your arguments?” asked the Chief Justice. He remarked that if the independent candidates had remained with PTI, there would have been no issue.
PTI had allied with SIC before the February 8 elections after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) revoked PTI’s electoral symbol, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court.
However, this move did not benefit PTI, as the ECP did not allocate reserved seats to SIC, citing its failure to submit a list of candidates.
The party approached the PHC on this issue, but the court upheld the ECP’s decision. In April, SIC chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza, along with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker, petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the PHC verdict and allocate 67 women and 11 minority seats in the assemblies.
On May 6, a three-member Supreme Court bench led by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, with Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah, suspended the PHC verdict and referred the matter to the judges’ committee for the formation of a larger bench due to its constitutional implications.
Last week, the ECP submitted a response to the Supreme Court, stating that SIC does not qualify for reserved seats as it does not allow non-Muslims to be members. The ECP also noted that SIC did not submit its candidate list before the January 24 deadline.
Meanwhile, SIC submitted additional documents to the Supreme Court, including the ECP’s notification of success for two National Assembly lawmakers-elect, requesting these documents be added to the judicial record.
