The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan on Friday overturned the denial of reserved seats to the PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), paving the way for a major legal win for Imran Khan’s party. The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) held a large protest outside the apex court today as the verdict was awaited. The court had reserved its verdict on Tuesday after closing the hearing on a set of appe­als moved by the SIC. The Supreme Court on Friday nixed the Peshawar High Court's (PHC) verdict upholding the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) move to deny the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed lawmakers reserved seats in the assemblies. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah announced the 8-5 majority verdict on the petition filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), an ally of the PTI, challenging the PHC verdict.

The apex court reserved the verdict on the SIC’s appeals on Tuesday after conducting nine hearings on the SIC's appeals after all parties including the federal government and the ECP presented their arguments against the SIC's plea. The full bench, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, 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 Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan. According to the verdict, the PHC's judgment dated March 25 is set aside. "The order of the ECP dated March 1 is declared to be ultra vires to the

Constitution, without lawful authority, and of no legal effect," it said. "The notification of various dates, whereby the person respectively mentioned, therein, being the persons identified in the commission's notification dated May 13, have been declared to be returned candidates for reserved seats for women and minorities in the national and provincial assemblies are declared to be ultra vires to the Constitution, without lawful authority, and of no legal effect, and are quashed from May 6 onawards, being the date an interim order was issued by the Supreme Court," said the verdict.  The top court remarked that PTI, as a political party, has a legal and constitutional right to reserved seats.

The reserved seats issue first emerged after over 80 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed independent candidates emerged victorious in the February 8 elections and subsequently joined the SIC in a bid to claim seats reserved for minorities and women. The SIC then approached the ECP on February 21 seeking allocation of reserved seats. However, the PTI suffered a setback after the electoral body, citing the party's failure to submit its list of candidates, denied allocating the reserved seats to the SIC via its 4-1 majority verdict on March 4. In the verdict, the ECP said it extended the deadline to submit a priority list for the reserved seats of women, and the SIC, before the February 8 polls, did not submit the required list which was "mandatory". The electoral body's verdict cited Article 51(6), saying the article clearly stated the reserved seats would be allocated to the political parties who contested elections and won general seats based on a "proportional representation system".

While rejecting the plea of SIC, the ECP accepted applications of the opposing parties and decided that the seats in the National Assembly would not remain vacant and be allocated by a proportional representation process of political parties on the basis of seats won by political parties. The electoral body said the SIC cannot claim the share in the reserved seats for the women "due to non-curable procedural and legal defects and violations of mandatory provisions of the Constitution".

 
Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)