Islamabad, 31 May 2024, (GNP): A 13-member Supreme Court bench has been assembled to hear the appeal by Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) contesting the Peshawar High Court’s decision, which rejected the party’s reserved seats for women and minorities.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa will lead the bench, which includes all available judges except Justice Musarrat Hilali, who is unable to participate due to a heart condition, sources said. The hearing is scheduled for June 3.
Earlier this month, a three-member Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and including Justices Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Athar Minallah, suspended the Peshawar High Court’s verdict and referred the case to a judges’ committee to form a larger bench for constitutional interpretation.
In its written order, the court noted that the issues regarding the allocation of reserved seats in the National and provincial assemblies pertain to the fundamental constitutional principle of parliamentary democracy, ensuring the electorate’s voice is accurately represented in the assemblies.
“Democratic mandate necessitates that the allocation of reserved seats enhances the representativeness of the electorate in the assemblies and upholds the principles of fairness and transparency in the electoral process. It is paramount to prioritize the integrity of the elections so that the Parliament remains a true reflection of the will of the people,” it said and granted leave to appeal.
The case reached the Supreme Court after the Peshawar High Court rejected the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) plea regarding reserved seats.
In April, SIC chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza and the speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly appealed to the Supreme Court against the PHC’s decision, requesting the allocation of 67 women and 11 minority seats to the party and overturning the high court’s verdict.
After the February 8 general elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan decided not to allocate reserved seats for women and minorities to the SIC because they had not submitted their candidate lists for those seats. The PHC upheld this decision.
However, the Supreme Court later suspended the PHC’s order when the decision was challenged.
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Following the Supreme Court order, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) suspended the victory notifications of 77 lawmakers elected on reserved seats that were denied to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
The SIC, led by Hamid Raza, gained prominence after PTI-backed candidates, who won in the February 8 elections, joined it when their party was deprived of its electoral symbol, ‘bat.’
In March, the ECP thwarted PTI’s attempt to claim the reserved seats, ruling that the SIC was not entitled to these seats due to “incurable legal defects and violation of the mandatory provision for submitting a party list for reserved seats.”
As a result, the commission not only denied the reserved seats to the SIC but also distributed them among other parties.
