ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan’s judge, Justice Athar Minallah, on Thursday observed that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) lacks the authority to bar any party from contesting the elections.
“Election Commission does not have the authority to exclude any political party from taking part in elections,” Justice Minallah remarked.
A 13-member full court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, heard the petition of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) against the Peshawar High Court (PHC) verdict denying them the reserved seats.
The bench comprised of Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
Justice Muneeb during the hearing questioned which party SIC Chief Hamid Raza associated himself with, whereas Justice Mandokhail asked whether a candidate can change his party after withdrawing his nomination papers.
ECP’s lawyer Sikander Bashir argued that the document submitted by the SIC chief mentioned that he was associated with PTI-Nazriati (PTI-N), which in fact is a different political party and is not linked to the PTI.
However, the politician contested the election as an independent candidate and did not submit the PTI-N ticket, the counsel added.
Furthermore, CJP Isa asked whether it is necessary to submit a certificate of affiliation to the party from which the election is to be contested.
The ECP’s lawyer responded that it is necessary to show the candidate’s declaration and affiliation with the party adding that a candidate is considered independent if the political affiliation and declaration do not match.
However, the chief justice observed that there was no discrepancy in the certificate and the ECP was in fact changing the status of the candidate.
“Why shouldn’t we consider [candidates] as belonging to the PTI?” CJP Isa remarked.
During the case, Justice Malik questioned why the ECP declared the candidates as independent when they were declaring their association with a certain political party.
“An independent candidate may also be allocated the ‘bat’ sign,” CJP Isa observed.
The court then directed the electoral body to submit PTI’s list regarding reserved seats to other lawyers along with declarations and certificates of the candidates. Later The case has been adjourned till July 1 next week.
The reserved seats issue started after the PTI-backed independent candidates emerged victorious in the February 8 elections and later joined the SIC in a bid to claim reserved seats for minorities and women.
However, citing its failure to submit its list of candidates, the ECP denied allocating the reserved seats to the SIC. The party then moved the PHC which upheld the electoral body’s verdict on the matter.
Subsequently, the SIC filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking to annul the PHC verdict and the allocation of 67 women and 11 minority seats in the assemblies.
On May 6, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, including Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah, suspended the PHC verdict.
