Islamabad: In a keenly awaited judgment, Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the Sunni Ittehad Council, allied with imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was eligible for over 20 extra seats reserved for women and minorities in the Parliament. PTI-backed independents won most number of seats in the February 8 elections but were ineligible for the 70 reserved seats meant for political parties only.
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 others heard the case.
The verdict was reserved on Tuesday for mutual consultation and announced on Friday. A majority of eight judges ruled in favour of the SIC by overturning the judgment of the Peshawar High Court, while five others opposed the provision of reserved seats. The judgment was announced by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had ordered the reserved seats instead to be distributed among other parties, mostly to those in the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The Supreme Court declared ECP’s order “null and void” in granting 23 reserved seats in a big win for SIC and PTI, but it will not affect the parliamentary majority of Shehbaz’s ruling coalition.
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. Since PTI was barred from directly contesting the elections, party-backed candidates won the most number of seats (93) but were unable to form the government.
However, the independent candidates were not eligible to claim the seats reserved for women and minorities that are awarded to the winning parties based on proportional representation. Hence, the candidates were asked by the PTI to join the SIC to form a parliamentary party to claim reserved seats.
However, the ECP rejected the SIC plea for reserved seats on the basis 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. The SIC plea was turned down by the Peshawar court in March. Hence, the party moved the Supreme Court to claim reserved seats.
On May 6, the Supreme Court suspended the Peshawar High Court’s decision about rejecting the SIC plea, in a major relief to the PTI. 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 National Assembly in Pakistan has a total of 336 seats – including 70 reserved seats – 60 for women, 10 for non-Muslims – in proportion to the number of seats they win. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had initially won a total of 75 general seats and was joined by nine independents.
With the allocation of 19 reserved seats for women and four reserved seats for minorities, the number reached 107. On the other hand, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had won 54 general seats and was allocated 12 seats reserved for women and two for minorities. However, PML-N’s numbers reduced from 121 to 107 and PPP’s from 72 to 67 after victory notifications of 22 members on the reserved seats of the National Assembly.
The decision by the Supreme Court is significant even if does not shake the numbers of the ruling coalition by PML-N and PPP – it will boost the political position of Imran Khan’s supporters, whose rallying cry has been that the election commission and a pro-military caretaker government indulged in electoral fraud to prevent it from victory in the elections.
Reacting to the verdict, PTI members were seen celebrating and also demanded the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja for “violating [the] Constitution of Pakistan” as it ruled that the SIC was not eligible for the reserved seats in a 4-1 verdict in March.
(with inputs from agencies)
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