Pakistan's Supreme Court rules in favour of Sunni Ittehad Council in reserved seats case

Islamabad: Pakistan's Supreme Court on Friday awarded reserved seats to an ally of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan in a keenly awaited judgment on the issue of apportioning seats reserved for women and minorities among political parties.

The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) had filed a plea challenging the Peshawar High Court (PHC) decision upholding the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) move to deny its share in reserved seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies.

A 13-member full bench headed by Chief Justice Isa and comprising justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Munib Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Ayesha Malik, Athar Minallah, Syed Hasan Rizvi, Shahid Waheed, Irfan Saadat Khan and Naeem Akhtar Afghan heard the case.

Chief Justice Isa had announced after the proceedings on Tuesday that the panel decided to reserve the verdict for mutual consultation, which it announced on Friday.

A majority of eight judges ruled in favour of the SIC by overturning the judgment of Peshawar High Court.

The judgment was announced by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah.

Earlier, after concluding the hearing on Tuesday, the 13 judges spent two days in mutual consultations before announcing the verdict.

The court initially announced that a three-member regular bench headed by the chief justice would announce the verdict at 9 am, but shortly after that, the timing was changed and the bench announcing the verdict was changed when it was announced that the original 13-member bench would issue the judgment at noon.

The dispute about the reserved seats was related to the rejection of a SIC plea by the ECP to award its share in the 70 reserved seats in the National Assembly and another 156 in the four provincial assemblies.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) could not contest the February 8 elections as the ECP rejected its intra-party elections and deprived it of the bat symbol for contesting the elections as a party.

Hence it was not eligible to claim the seats reserved for women and minorities that are awarded to the winning parties based on proportional representation.

So its candidates, who had won independently but with the support of PTI, were asked by the PTI leadership to join a SIC to form a parliamentary party to claim reserved seats.

The joining of PTI lawmakers made the SIC prominent, which otherwise was a dormant entity.

The ECP had rejected the SIC plea for reserved seats on the pretext that it had not contested the elections as a party and only got strength when the PTI-backed independently elected candidates joined its ranks after winning the elections. Its appeal against the ECP decision in the Peshawar High Court was also turned down in March, forcing the party to file a challenge in the Supreme Court.

In a rare move, a 13-member full bench presided over the hearing and announced the verdict on the insistence of the SIC lawyers.

Earlier, the Supreme Court on May 6 in a major relief to the PTI suspended the Peshawar High Court's decision about rejecting the SIC plea. Following the ruling, the ECP on May 14 suspended the victory notifications of 77 candidates, who belonged to other parties and were declared successful on the reserved seats.

The final ruling by the top court in the case decided the fate of those 77 reserved seats. Though it may not change the current power structure, the changes in the overall number game in the assemblies may impact the law-making in the country.