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In the Friday verdict, the court made it clear that the withdrawal of an election symbol can not cannot disqualify a political party from contesting in elections. read more
 "Is Imran Khan's PTI coming back? Pak SC overturns denial of reserved seats")
Pakistan Supreme Court ruled that Imran Khan's PTI can allocate candidates in the reserved. Reuters
In a major legal victory for the Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the country’s Supreme Court accepted the plea of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and ruled that the party is eligible to allocate reserved seats.
According to Pakistani news outlet Dawn, the verdict was announced by a 13-member bench of the top court and the proceeding was headed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa.
“[The] withdrawal of election symbol cannot disqualify a political party from elections,” the verdict said. “The PTI was and is a political party,” the court averred.
In the Friday verdict, the court made it clear that the withdrawal of an election symbol can not cannot disqualify a political party from contesting in elections. In March, a 4-1 verdict by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) ruled that PTI-backed SIC was not entitled to claim quota for reserved seats. At that time, the court ruled that SIC could not allocate candidates “due to having non-curable legal defects and violation of a mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats”.
The timeline of the whole ordeal
The issue first emerged after over 80 PTI-backed independent candidates emerged victorious in the February 8 poll and subsequently joined the SIC in a bid to claim seats that are reserved in the parliament for minorities and women.
In the March 4 ruling, the ECP cited Article 51(6), saying that the article clearly mentions that the reserved seats would be allocated to the political parties who contested elections and won general seats based on a “proportional representation system”.
After giving out its judgement against the PTI, the commission decided to distribute the seats among other parliamentary parties, with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) turning out to be the major beneficiaries.
On March 6, SIC approached Peshawar High Court which upheld the ECP’s verdict on the matter in a March 14 ruling. Subsequently, the SIC moved to the Supreme Court on April 2, seeking to set aside the PHC verdict. The council asked the court the permission to allocate 67 women and 11 minority seats in the assemblies.
It is pertinent to note that due to the ECP ruling, the PTI lost as many as 77 reserved seats in NA and provincial assemblies. Meanwhile, the seats helped PML-N and PPP coalition to secure a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.
Furthermore, the PML-N also submitted its written argument over the matter in which it claimed that SIC is not entitled to the reserved seats as it neither contested the February 8 polls nor provided the list of candidates.
“None of the members of SIC contesting for the reserved seats filed their nomination papers let alone with the mandatory requirement of filing them with the list,” the court filing mentioned.
Meanwhile, immediately after the verdict, PTI took to X, formally known as Twitter and demanded the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja for “violating [the] Constitution of Pakistan”.
Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja must IMMEDIATELY resign after violating constitution of Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/HH85BzMyel
— PTI (@PTIofficial) July 12, 2024“Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja must IMMEDIATELY resign after violating the constitution of Pakistan,” the party wrote on X.
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