Pakistan SC suspends Peshawar High Court ruling on reserved seats

ANI |
Updated: May 6, 2024 6:00 PM IST

Islamabad (Pakistan), May 6 (ANI): The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday stayed the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) order to allot reserved seats to other parties, it was reported The Express Tribune.
This comes after a three-judge bench headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah was allowed to hear an appeal and adjourned the case to June 3.
The bench unanimously stayed the ECP’s decision on reallocation of reserved seats to other political parties.
The PHC, through its earlier ruling, undermined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s hopes of getting reserved seats when it rejected the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) petition challenging the ECP’s ruling granting reserved seats denied to the party.
PTI-backed independent candidates had found a new home in the SIC after the party lost its election symbol following the verdict in the inter-party election case.
This is the first time that the PTI has managed to get relief from the apex court during the tenure of CJP Qazi Faez Isa, The Express Tribune reported.
During the hearing earlier today. Justice Shah summoned the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) and a representative of the ECP when the court was hearing a petition from the SIC, The Express Tribune reported.
As the hearing began, Justice Shah noted that the basic principle of democracy and the Constitution is the mandate of the people, which must be reflected in Parliament.
“A majority cannot be denied on technical grounds,” the court added.

The bench also asked whether the Constitution or the Election Act required reallocation of reserved seats to other parties like the PML-N, PPPP, etc.
“If a political party fails to achieve an election symbol, its voters would lose their right to vote,” Judge Athar Minallah said.
Additional Attorney General Chaudhry Amir Rehman argued that the case required “constitutional interpretation” and claimed that a larger court would be formed for trial.
However, he was told that the hearing is in the “leave granting phase”.
The court further noted that after the first hearing, the issue regarding the demand for a larger bench will be considered.
The SIC, comprising PTI-backed lawmakers, on April 1 challenged the PHC’s March 14 order that deprived the party of reserved seats, The Express Tribune reported.
The petition stated that the PTI candidates had joined the SIC after their party lost its electoral symbol and added that the ECP also did not object to the entry of the above-mentioned independent returnees into the SIC.
The party argued that the fundamental premise of the proportional representation system for the allocation of reserved seats for women and non-Muslims as set out in Article 51(6)(d), (e) and Article 106(3)(c) ), of the Constitution Act, 1973 does not depend on whether a political party files lists of candidates for reserved seats before the general election or whether the party has contested the election, The Express Tribune reported.
Instead, the party claimed that the constitutional basis for the right to reserved seats under the proportional representation system is determined by the “total number of general seats obtained by each political party from the province concerned in the National Assembly” or the “ total number of general seats secured by each political party in the provincial assembly.
On March 4, the ECP accepted the applications from the opposing parties and decided that the seats in the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies would not remain vacant and would be allocated through a proportional representation process of political parties based on the seats won by political parties. (ANI)