ISLAMABAD: The federal government has voiced concerns over the delay in the issuance of the detailed judgement of the Supreme Court’s July 12 ruling in the reserved seats case while calling for a discourse on the dissenting note of the two judges.
“The detailed verdict of July 12 verdict hasn’t been issued even after 15 days,” Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said while talking to journalists in Lahore on Sunday.
The apex court last month declared PTI eligible for reserved seats of women and minorities in the assemblies and set aside the decisions of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The verdict deprived the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led coalition government of its two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.
Since the top court’s judgment, the ECP has notified 39 out of 80 Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) as PTI members along with 93 lawmakers in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh assemblies as returned candidates of the PTI.
However, the PML-N and its key ally the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have filed review pleas against the full court’s 8-5 majority verdict.
The PML-N in its review plea, has questioned if reserved seats could be given to a political party that had not submitted a party list within the prescribed time and whether a political party can be granted reserved seats whose candidates have not even filed nomination papers within the time provided by the ECP.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in its appeal has maintained that the PTI is not entitled to the reserved seats as it did not claim them in the first place.
Attaullah Tarar referring to the 29-page dissenting note written by Justices Amin-Ud-Din Khan and Naeem Akhtar Afghan, said that the issues raised in the said document should be discussed.
“It’s imperative that the points raised by the two judges are duly answered,” the minister said.
The judges’ in their dissenting note pointed out that the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) did not contest the February 8 nationwide elections as a political party, whereas, its chairman had also taken part as an independent candidate in the electoral event.
