The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday halted the implementation of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) directive assigning reserved seats to other parties according to The Express Tribune. This decision was made by a three-judge bench, headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, which granted leave to appeal and postponed further proceedings until June 3.
Unanimously, the bench suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to redistribute reserved seats among other political parties. The Peshawar High Court, in a previous ruling, dashed the hopes of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to obtain reserved seats by dismissing a petition from the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) challenging the ECP’s denial of reserved seats to the party.
Following the ruling in the intra-party election case, PTI-affiliated independent candidates sought refuge in the SIC after losing their election symbol. According to The Express Tribune, this marks the first instance during Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s tenure that PTI has received relief from the apex court.
During today’s hearing, Justice Shah summoned the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) and a representative from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as the court addressed a petition filed by the SIC, as reported by The Express Tribune. At the start of the session, Justice Shah remarked that a fundamental principle of democracy and the Constitution is the expression of the people’s will, which should be reflected in parliament. The court emphasized that a majority cannot be disregarded on technical grounds.
The bench also questioned whether the Constitution or the election act mandated the reallocation of reserved seats to other parties such as the PML-N, PPPP, and others. Justice Athar Minallah noted that if a political party fails to secure an election symbol, its supporters would be deprived of their voting rights.
Additional Attorney General Chaudhry Amir Rehman contended that the issue necessitated “constitutional interpretation” and proposed the formation of a larger bench for adjudication. However, he was informed that the hearing was currently at the “leave granting stage.” The bench indicated that the consideration of a larger bench would occur after the initial hearing.
The SIC, consisting of PTI-affiliated lawmakers, challenged the Peshawar High Court’s March 14 ruling, which deprived the party of reserved seats, according to The Express Tribune. The petition stated that PTI candidates joined the SIC following the loss of their party’s electoral symbol, with no objections raised by the ECP regarding these independent candidates joining the SIC.
The party argued that the fundamental premise of the proportional representation system for allocating reserved seats for women and non-Muslims, as outlined in the Constitution of 1973, Article 51(6)(d)(e) and Article 106(3)(c), does not depend on whether a political party submits candidate lists for reserved seats before the general election or contested the election.
Instead, the party asserted that the core constitutional basis for the right to reserved seats under the proportional representation system is determined by the “total number of general seats secured 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 applications from opposing parties and decided that seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies would not remain vacant, but rather be allocated through a proportional representation process based on seats won by political parties.