Under what law [reserved] seats were allocated to other parties, asks Justice Mansoor Ali Shah
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Monday suspended the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) verdict on reserved seat while accepting the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) plea against the high court’s ruling.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had rejected the party’s plea depriving it of reserved seats.
“[We are accepting the [SIC’s] pleas [against the PHC verdict], Justice Mansoor Ali Shah stated, and asked under what law [reserved] seats were allocated to other parties.
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.
In March, a five-member PHC bench, headed by Chief Justice Ibrahim Khan, and comprising Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, Justice Ijaz Anwar, Justice Arshad Ali and Justice Shakeel Ahmad had rejected the SIC’s petition against ECP’s decision depriving it of reserved seats.
The electoral body had ruled that the SIC was not eligible for reserved seats allotted to women and minorities “due to non-curable procedural and legal defects and violations of mandatory provisions of the Constitution”.
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.
In response, the SIC moved the SC court last month urging the apex court to allot the party the 67 women and 11 minority seats in the National and provincial assemblies and set aside the PHC ruling.
The SIC’s plea contends that reserved seats for women and minorities are given to the parties in the national and provincial assemblies on the basis of proportional representation and no party can be given more reserved seats than its representation.
It is to be noted that the issue of reserved seats had been a point of contention between the SIC, which primarily comprises Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed independent candidates, and the ruling parties notably Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and others.
Dozens of members of the PPP, PML-N, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) have taken oath on reserved seats following the PHC’s verdict.
More to follow…
