Pakistan
PTI also asks the court to reject ECP’s request for advice within a short period of time
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The Pakistan Movement for Justice (PTI) on Monday approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan demanding implementation of the court order on reserved seats.
The PTI, through advocate Aziz Bhindari, filed another petition before the Supreme Court against the Election Commission of Pakistan, seeking guidance on the Supreme Court’s order.
The PTI pleaded for rejection of the ECP’s request for comment on the Supreme Court order and also requested that the ECP be directed to accept the certificates of the independent candidates who won the February elections.
In addition, the largest opposition party has also filed a response with the court regarding the ambiguities in the court order.
RULING ON RESERVED SEATS
It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had set aside the Peshawar High Court’s verdict depriving the PTI of the seats reserved for non-Muslim and women candidates in the parliamentary assemblies.
The Supreme Court, in its 8-5 majority decision, said that the conduct of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with regard to reserved seats was “unconstitutional,” adding that the PTI would continue to exist as a political party even without being allotted an electoral symbol. The verdict was delivered 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 ruled in favour of PTI to get the reserved seats.
Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Jamal Mandokhail, Justice Naeem Afghan and Justice Aminuddin Khan spoke against the PTI.
Justice Yahya Afridi also wrote a dissenting opinion.
More on the topic: Ruling on reserved seats changes composition of assemblies
The Supreme Court recognised the PTI as a political party and rejected the SIC’s appeals.
BACKGROUND
On March 4, the Election Commission of Pakistan accepted the opposition parties’ proposals and decided that the seats in the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies would not remain vacant but would be allocated through proportional representation based on the seats won by the political parties.
This development resulted in the PTI-backed SIC losing a total of 77 reserved seats: 23 seats in the National Assembly (20 for women and 3 for minorities), 25 seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly (21 for women and 4 for minorities), two seats in the Sindh Assembly (for women) and 27 seats in the Punjab Assembly (24 for women and 3 for minorities).
The Peshawar High Court had also rejected the petitions of the Sunni Ittehad Council for the reserved seats for women and minorities. The party had challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) verdict of not allocating the reserved seats for women and minorities to the SIC.
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