KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday issued instructions to not count votes of members of provincial assembly (MPAs) elected on three disputed reserved seats in the presidential polls which are set to take place on March 9.
The order came during a hearing on the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) petition seeking the allocation of reserved seats for women and minorities in the Sindh Assembly.
“Three seats will not be counted in the presidential election until a verdict is announced on the petition,” the court said while issuing a short order during the hearing today.
The court also issued a notice to the parties — the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — at the request of the SIC and asked them to respond on March 28.
The party, which was joined by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) affiliated backed independent candidates who had won the February 8 general elections to claim reserved seats, filed the plea today.
The court had accepted the PTI-backed party’s request for an urgent hearing of the petition in view of the importance of the matter.
On March 4, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) ruled that PTI-backed SIC is not eligible for the reserved seats allotted to women and minorities.
Following the electoral body’s verdict, the party approached the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against the reserved seats matter.
The court on Wednesday barred the oath-taking of lawmakers notified on reserved seats denied to the SIC. A stay order preventing members from swearing-in was also issued while ECP was directed to submit its response in the said matter.
A day earlier, the PHC extended the stay order on the oath-taking ceremony of lawmakers and summoned Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan to appear before the court on the next hearing.
The same day, SIC also approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday against the ECP’s move for not giving them reserved seats in Punjab.
