Prime Minister’s aide on political and public affairs Rana Sanaullah insisted on Monday that the Supreme Court (SC) issued an “interim ruling while final verdict is due to be made” on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) plea seeking reserved seats.
Sanaullah, speaking on Geo News programme Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath today, expressed his views that the final verdict of the apex court is expected in the coming days.
He was commenting on the top court’s decision to suspend the PHC’s ruling on reserved seat in favour of the PTI-backed SIC plea against the high court’s previous ruling.
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader claimed that the said reserved seats would not be granted to the SIC while the other parties would retain their seats in accordance with the law and the Constitution.
He went on to say that the reserved seats were already allocated to each party as per its parliamentary share. On the other hand, the PM’s aide said the Imran Khan-founded party did not contest the 2024 general elections and its candidates run in the polls as independent.
The independent candidates cannot seek the reserved seats and later they joined a party which also did not participate in the general elections, Sanaullah said while pointing towards the SIC.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court suspended the PHC’s verdict on reserved seats while accepting the SIC’s plea against the high court’s ruling.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had rejected the party’s plea depriving it of reserved seats.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Shah and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah heard the SIC’s plea filed through Advocate Faisal Siddiqui last month.
Barring the members, who have taken oath on the reserved seats, from casting their votes in legislation, the SC said that it will hear the case on a daily basis from June 3.
Furthermore, the court noted that the said issue only concerns the additional reserved seats allotted to the political parties later on.
