F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD : Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan regarding the implementation of the court order on reserved seats.
The PTI filed a miscellaneous application in the Supreme Court of Pakistan through Aziz Bhindari advocate against the Election Commission petition desiring guidance on the top court’s short order.
The PTI implored to reject the ECP’s petition regarding advice on the top court’s short order. It also prayed to order the election commission to approve certificates of the independent candidates who won the February elections.
Moreover, the major opposition party has also submitted its reply in the court regarding ambiguity in the court order.
It is to be recalled that going against the grain of its previous decisions regarding the PTI in the run-up to Feb 8 election, the apex court overturned the Peshawar High Court’s verdict of depriving the PTI of the reserved seats of non-Muslim and women candidates in assemblies.
The apex court, in its majority 8-5 decision, announced that the conduct of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) regarding reserved seats was ‘unconstitutional’, adding that the PTI would remain intact as a political party even without being assigned an election symbol. The verdict was authored by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah.
Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Irfan Saadat, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Ali Mazhar have decided in favour of the PTI to be allotted reserved seats while Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Jamal Mandokhail, Justice Naeem Afghan and Justice Aminuddin Khan favoured against the PTI.
Besides, Justice Yahya Afridi wrote a dissenting note.
The SC accepted the PTI as a political party and rejected the SIC’s appeals. It has been said in the SC verdict that the PTI could give list of the candidates of the reserved seats, adding that those 41 candidates could present their certificates to prove that they were members of the party.
It is noteworthy that the full court bench had also deliberated on the PTI’s reserved seats for almost two hours.
Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha A. Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan attended the meeting presided over by the CJP.
BACKGROUND
On March 4, the Election Commission of Pakistan had accepted applications of the opposition parties and decided that the seats in the National and provincial assemblies would not remain vacant and would be allocated by a proportional representation process on the basis of seats won by political parties.
The development resulted in PTI-backed SIC losing a total of 77 reserved seats – 23 National Assembly seats (20 women and 3 minorities), 25 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seats (21 women and 4 minorities), two Sindh Assembly seats (women) and 27 Punjab Assembly seats (24 women and 3 minority).
The Peshawar High Court had also rejected the petitions filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council for the reserved seats of women and minorities. The party had challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) verdict of not allocating the reserved women and minority seats to the SIC.
