Barrister Ali Zafar argued before the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday that reserved seats under Article 103 Section C should be given to the Sunni Unity Council. Barrister Zafar continued arguments before a five-member larger bench on the petitions filed on the issue of reserved seats for the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC). The bench is headed by Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and includes Justice Ijaz Anwar, Justice Atiq Shah, Justice Shakeel Ahmed and Justice Syed Arshad Ali. Barrister Zafar submitted that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was deprived of its symbol days before general elections. The Supreme Court upheld the decision of Election Commission (ECP) to deprive the PTI of its election symbol after which candidates were given different symbols to contest election as independents.

Yet people voted for the PTI overwhelmingly. Barrister Zafar said that after winning the election as independents, they joined the SIC. Eighty-six members-elect of the National Assembly, 107 of the Punjab, 90 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, nine of Sindh and one of Balochistan assemblies joined the SIC. The ECP was bound to allot 78 seats to the SIC, but it did not do so, he added. The court inquired the counsel whether it was hearing the case of reserved seats of the entire country. Barrister Zafar replied that the petition was for the National and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies. It may be noted that the ECP had refused to give 20 reserved seats for women and three minority seats to the SIC.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)