ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday resumed hearing the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) petition against the denial of seats reserved for women and minorities in the national and provincial assemblies.
A full court 13-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, is conducting the hearing on SIC petition, which is an ally of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The bench also comprises 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.
The PTI had joined hands with the SIC ahead of the February 8 elections to contest the polls after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) stripped the party of its electoral symbol, a decision upheld by the top court.
However, this did not help the party as the election commission did not allocate reserved seats to the SIC, citing its failure to submit its list of candidates.
The party had then approached the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on the said issue wherein the court upheld the electoral body’s decision.
In April, SIC chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza, along with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker, moved the SC seeking setting aside of the PHC verdict and the allocation of 67 women and 11 minority seats in the assemblies.
On May 6, a three-member SC bench headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, including Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah, suspended the PHC verdict.
It then referred the matter to the judges’ committee for the formation of a larger bench since the matter required constitutional interpretation.
In the previous hearing, the chief justice said that all issues would have been resolved had the PTI held intra-party polls.
Meanwhile, the ECP had last week submitted its response to the apex court, saying the SIC does not qualify for reserved seats as the political party doesn’t allow non-Muslims to be a part of it.
The ECP informed the top court that the reserved seats cannot be alloted to the SIC as the party did not submit the list of candidates before the January 24 deadline.
It also stated that the PTI candidates were asked to submit the certificate for the allotment of PTI-Nazriati’s (PTI-N) election symbol. Later, the candidates withdrew the PTI-N’s symbol and were declared independent candidates, it added.
The electoral authority further stated that the independent candidates joined SIC, after which it gave the majority 4-1 verdict of not allocating the reserved seats to the PTI-backed party and later the PHC upheld the ruling.
Meanwhile, SIC submitted the additional documents to the apex court, including the ECP’s notification of success for two National Assembly lawmakers-elect, with a plea to bring the said documents on judicial records.
