Supreme Court orders reserved seats to be given to PTI, nullifies Peshawar High Court’s decision
The Supreme Court nullifies the decisions of the Peshawar High Court and the Election Commission, ruling in favor of PTI’s reserved seats entitlement.
Islamabad: The Supreme Court has nullified the decisions of the Peshawar High Court and the Election Commission regarding the reserved seats of the Sunni Ittehad Council.
The 13-member larger bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Qazi Faez Isa, had reserved the decision on the case regarding the reserved seats of the Sunni Ittehad Council, which was announced by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah.
In the presence of Attorney General Mansoor Awan, Election Commission lawyer Sikandar Bashir, and PTI leaders, the decision was announced in Supreme Court Room No. 1, where the court declared the Election Commission’s notification of May 13 unconstitutional. The majority decision of the Supreme Court stated that a party cannot be deprived of the electoral process by being deprived of an election symbol.
In the majority decision, the Supreme Court ruled that PTI is a political party and is entitled to women’s and minority seats. On June 27, the Election Commission presented an order stating that some nomination papers had party affiliations. Forty out of eighty people must decide within fifteen days which party they belong to.
The Supreme Court stated in its decision that elected members of the National and Provincial Assemblies should submit an affidavit of PTI membership. The Election Commission’s decision is against the Constitution. Depriving a party of an election symbol does not deprive it of the right to participate in elections.
Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Jamal Mandokhail, Justice Naeem Afghan, and Justice Aminuddin Khan opposed the majority decision. In his dissenting note, Justice Yahya Afridi stated that candidates who have given certificates that they belong to PTI should be considered PTI candidates. PTI should be given reserved seats in the same proportion. Candidates who joined other parties violated the wishes of the people.
The dissenting note further stated that the Election Commission should reassess the reserved seats of the provinces and the National Assembly.
In his dissenting note, Justice Aminuddin Khan stated that the appeal of the Sunni Ittehad Council is rejected. Justice Naeem Afghan agreed with Justice Aminuddin Khan’s dissenting note.
In their dissenting note, Chief Justice and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail stated that the Sunni Ittehad Council did not win a single seat. The Sunni Ittehad Council did not even submit a list of reserved seats. The Constitution gives the concept of proportional representation.
During the announcement of the decision, PTI leaders raised slogans in the premises of the Supreme Court, while everyone present in the courtroom stood up and listened to the decision.
It should be noted that after the decision was reserved, a consultative meeting of 13 judges was held on Thursday under the chairmanship of Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Qazi Faez Isa, while on Wednesday, a consultative meeting continued for more than an hour.
On February 28, 2024, a five-member bench headed by the Chief Election Commissioner issued a unanimous written decision stating that the Sunni Ittehad Council is not entitled to reserved seats. Four members decided to allocate the seats to other political parties, but Punjab member Babar Hassan Bharwana stated in a dissenting note that until Articles 51 and 106 are amended, the seats should be kept vacant instead of being distributed among other political parties.
The Sunni Ittehad Council challenged the Election Commission’s decision in the Peshawar High Court. In March, a five-member larger bench of the Peshawar High Court upheld the Election Commission’s decision and dismissed the Sunni Ittehad Council’s appeal.
Later in May, the matter reached the Supreme Court, where a three-member bench consisting of Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Athar Minallah, and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar suspended the decisions of the Peshawar High Court and the Election Commission on May 6, 2024.
The three-member bench of the Supreme Court formulated questions of constitutional and legal interpretation and referred the matter to the Practice and Procedure Committee for the formation of a larger bench. In the committee meeting, consisting of Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, and Justice Muneeb Akhtar, it was decided by a majority to form a full court. The 13-member full court completed the hearing on July 9 after six long hearings and reserved the decision.
It is important to note that there are many examples of significant decisions in the past that were issued on Fridays. The decision to reinstate former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was announced by the Supreme Court on Friday, July 20, 2007. Similarly, the decision to disqualify former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the Panama case over a hypothetical salary was announced on Friday, July 28, 2017, while the decision to give a clean chit to the founder of PTI and disqualify Jahangir Khan in the case of making foreign properties was also announced on Friday, December 15, 2017.
