ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan’s Constitutional Bench on Friday dismissed the petition filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), which was supported by PTI, seeking reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies based on its general seats.
Following a series of at least 17 hearings, the Supreme Court issued a brief verdict, overturning its previous judgment and reinstating the Peshawar High Court’s decision that the reserved seats should be distributed among other political parties.When the 11-member panel, led by Justice Aminuddin Khan, resumed proceedings on Friday, Justice Salahuddin Panhwar recused himself, citing a desire to review his short verdict before leaving the bench.
Initially, a 13-member Constitutional Bench, headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan, started hearing review petitions on May 6. However, Justices Ayesha A Malik and Aqeel Abbasi deemed the petitions inadmissible and withdrew from further proceedings, with the chief justice noting that their withdrawal was voluntary.
The controversy arose after over 80 independent candidates backed by PTI won seats in the February 8 elections. Subsequently, the SIC approached the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on February 21 to seek the allocation of reserved seats.However, the PTI faced a setback when the ECP, citing the party’s failure to submit its list of candidates, rejected the allocation of reserved seats to SIC in a 4-1 decision on March 4. The reserved seats for women and minorities were then allocated among other parties.
The SIC, supported by PTI, challenged the ECP’s decision in court after the commission refused to allocate seats due to PTI’s failure to submit candidate lists on time. The Peshawar High Court upheld the ECP’s stance, prompting SIC to file an appeal with the Supreme Court.The Supreme Court initially ruled on July 12 that PTI was entitled to reserved seats, countering the Election Commission’s March 1 decision. This verdict was reaffirmed in a detailed judgment issued last month.
On October 18, the Supreme Court issued another clarification, emphasizing that amendments to the Election Act cannot override its July 12 ruling on reserved seats.“ECP is mandated to comply with the decisions of the Supreme Court,” the judges stated in today’s clarification.
