ISLAMABAD: A full-court bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan has started hearing of the plea of Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) — the ally of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — challenging the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) decision that denied it reserved seats for minorities and women.
The 13-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, comprises all the available judges apart from Justice Musarrat Hilali due to ailment. Earlier in May, the SC had suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) verdict to allocate SIC’s reserved seats to other parties
On March 4, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had accepted applications of the opposition parties and decided that the seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies would not remain vacant and would be allocated by a proportional representation process on the basis of seats won by political parties.
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The development resulted SIC losing a total of 77 reserved seats – 23 NA seats (20 women and 3 minorities), 25 KP Assembly seats (21 women and 4 minorities), two Sindh Assembly seats (women) and 27 Punjab Assembly seats (24 women and 3 minority).
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) also rejected the petitions filed by the SIC for the reserved seats of women and minorities. The party had challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision of not allocating the reserved women and minority seats to the SIC.
More to be followed…
