The 13-member SC bench annulled the Peshawar High Court’s previous order as unconstitutional. The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) had demanded that 77 seats for women and minorities, which were originally allotted to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition be reallocated to the PTI-backed party.
The SIC is the new home to PTI-backed independent candidates. The PTI candidates were forced to contest the elections as independents after the SC upheld the ECP’s decision, deeming its intra-party polls “unconstitutional” and revoked its claim on the iconic electoral symbol.
In a bid to grab the seats reserved for women and minorities, PTI declared that the party-backed winning candidates in Feb 8 elections would join the minority SIC in the National Assembly as well as in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The ruling coalition has 224 seats in NA, which gives it a two-third majority in 336-seat NA. As many as 21 of the 25 SIC reserved seats were allotted to ruling coalition.
The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) got 16 of SIC reserved seats and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) got five of those seats. The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) was given four.
If these seats are reallocated to SIC, the ruling coalition’s strength would be reduced to 203 seats, depriving it of two-third majority in NA.
In March, a five-member bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja had rejected the SIC’s petition seeking the allocation of reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies.
The ECP announced the verdict with a 4-1 majority, saying the SIC was not entitled to reserved seats.Today, the decision backed by eight judges, was announced by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah.
“The withdrawal of election symbol cannot disqualify a political party from elections. The PTI was and is a political party,” the court said.
The judgment further said that the withdrawal of an election symbol cannot disqualify a political party from participating in the elections.
On Thursday, the full court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, upon the completion of arguments of SIC and PTI lawyers against the Peshawar High Court (PHC)’s verdict on reserved seats of women and non-Muslims had reserved the judgment.
Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan, the counsels of Election Commissions of Pakistan (ECP) Sikandar Bashir Mohmand, and Makhdoom Ali Khan, who represented affected candidates, elected on reserved seats, have argued that the SIC is no longer entitled to the reserved seats as it has neither contested general elections nor won any seats.
Following the SC verdict, PTI’s official X account demanded the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja for violating the Constitution of Pakistan.
PTI celebrates victory, demands CEC Raja’s immediate resignation
Reacting to the verdict, PTI members lauded the top court’s decision. A post from the PTI’s official X account demanded the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja for “violating [the] Constitution of Pakistan”.
PTI leader and former KP finance minister Taimur Khan Jhagra congratulated Imran Khan and PTI supporters on the Supreme Court’s decision.
“We are on the right side of history, as difficult as that may be. The fight will go on,” he wrote on X, adding that there were “serious questions on the malafide intent” of the ECP.
Imran Khan’s former aide Fawad Chaudhry echoed the party account’s sentiments, also demanding the resignation of the chief election commissioner in a post on X. He said the PTI should “demand ECP resignation after SCP has now official charge-sheeted ECP”.
Former human rights minister Shireen Mazari also took to X to celebrate the verdict. “Justice served, but all the minority opinions incl [sic] the one CJP read out sounded confused at best unlike the clarity of the majority 8 mbr [sic] order!” she wrote.
Acting President PTI Punjab Hammad Azhar took to X and lauded the “eight principled judges” who “broke the chain of oppression and cruelty despite intense pressure”. He added that the remaining judges should release Imran Khan and “all other innocent leaders and workers, end the forgery of Form 47, and restore democracy and human rights in the country”
Party spokesman Raoof Hassan also extended his “hearty congratulations” to the PTI on X, lauding the Supreme Court for “breaking the barriers of intimidation”. “This is only the beginning of a long haul till we reach the final destination when Imran Khan shall take over as the Prime Minister of Pakistan,” he said. “Soon, very soon.”
In a 4-1 verdict in March, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had ruled that the SIC was not entitled to claim quota for reserved seats “due to having non-curable legal defects and violation of a mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats”.
The commission had also decided to distribute the seats among other parliamentary parties, with the PML-N and the PPP becoming major beneficiaries with 16 and five additional seats while the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) was given four. Meanwhile, the verdict was rejected by the PTI as unconstitutional.
Later the same month, while ruling on an SIC plea, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) had dismissed an SIC plea challenging the ECP decision and denied it reserved seats.
In April, the SIC filed a petition before the SC — moved by party chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza — seeking to set aside the PHC judgment.
The apex court on May 6 had suspended the March 14 PHC judgment as well as the March 1 ECP decision to deprive the SIC of seats reserved for women and minorities.
The SC had also ordered placing the present petitions before the three-judge committee that determines the constitution of the bench for the reconstitution of a larger bench when Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan highlighted that under Section 4 of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023, the present case should be heard by a larger bench since the issue concerns the interpretation of constitutional provisions.
The ECP subsequently suspended victory notifications of as many as 77 members of the national and provincial assemblies elected on those seats.
The suspended lawmakers include 44 from PML-N, 15 from PPP, 13 from JUI-F and one each from PML-Q, IPP, PTI-P, MQM-P and ANP.
Resultantly, the ruling coalition lost a two-thirds majority in the lower house of Parliament for now, with its numerical strength shrinking to 209 from 228. In the House of 336, the magic figure to attain a two-thirds majority comes to 224.
The PML-N’s strength in the House has reduced from 121 to 107 while PPP’s from 72 to 67.
Those suspended include 22 members of the National Assembly elected on reserved seats for women and minorities. They include 14 from PML-N, five from PPP and three from JUI-F.
Headed by the CJP, a full court meeting on Wednesday had considered various aspects of the controversy at length since the case is of first impression and will have a far-reaching impact on the allotment of the reserved seats among political parties in the legislature in the future as well.
The real controversy before the court was how to deal with the reserved seats if they are neither doled out to other parties having a presence in Parliament and provincial assemblies nor allotted to the SIC that did not contest the Feb 8 general elections and thus failed to secure a single seat — a legal requirement for the allotment of reserved seats according to the ECP.
The SIC, however, argued that under the concept of a proportionate representation system, it was not a constitutional requirement for the allocation of reserved seats that a political party having general seats in the assemblies had contested the general elections.
