In a significant legal win for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Supreme Court of Pakistan overturned the decision denying reserved seats to the PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah announced the 8-5 majority verdict on a petition filed by the SIC, an ally of PTI.
Justices Athar Minallah, Shahid Waheed, Muneeb Akhtar, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Ayesha Malik, Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, and Irfan Saadat Khan ruled in favor of PTI.
The Supreme Court nullified the Peshawar High Court’s order, which had upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision denying reserved seats to SIC. The apex court declared the ECP’s allocation of reserved seats to the ruling coalition unconstitutional.
The court accepted SIC’s petition, ruling the party eligible for reserved seats allocation. It recognized PTI as a political party and instructed the Imran Khan-led party to submit its list of reserved seat candidates to the ECP within 15 days.
“PTI candidates cannot be declared independent nor representatives of any other party,” the verdict stated, highlighting that the ECP had incorrectly labeled PTI members as independents.
The verdict was reserved on Tuesday after closing the hearing on appeals by SIC.
The full bench, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Isa, included Justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Muneeb Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Amin-ud-Din Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Athar Minallah, Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Ayesha Malik, Shahid Waheed, Irfan Saadat Khan, and Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
The reserved seats issue surfaced after over 80 PTI-backed independent candidates won in the February 8 elections. SIC approached the ECP on February 21 for reserved seat allocation.
However, on March 4, the ECP, citing PTI’s failure to submit its candidate list, denied allocating reserved seats to SIC in a 4-1 majority verdict. The reserved seats for women and minorities were distributed among other political parties.
The SIC then approached the court after the Peshawar High Court upheld the ECP’s decision. The Supreme Court’s ruling reversed this decision.
In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, the ECP had allocated one reserved seat each to Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). In the Sindh Assembly, reserved seats for women were allocated to Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and PPP, while a minority seat was secured by PPP’s Sadhu Mal alias Surinder Valasai.
The ECP allocated three minority reserved seats to PML-N, PPP, and JUI-F, which SIC claimed. The PHC ruling previously allowed the ruling coalition, including PML-N and PPP, to secure a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, increasing PML-N’s seats to 123, PPP’s to 73, while SIC held 82 seats.
