Reserved seats: SC suspends PHC decision

Islamabad: The Supreme Court of Pakistan Monday suspended the decision of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on the issue of reserved seats of the Sunni Ittehad Council.

According to the details, a three-member bench headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minullah heard the appeal filed in the Supreme Court for the reserved seats of the SIC

At the beginning of the hearing, the federal government requested to constitute a larger bench.

On behalf of the federal government, Additional Attorney General Amir Rahman said that only a larger bench can hear the appeals, but the court rejected the objection on the bench.

Female assembly members also objected bench

The objection on the bench was also raised by the female members of the assembly nominated for reserved seats.

The lawyer women MNAs told the court that this is a case of interpretation of Article 51 of the Constitution, the case can be heard by a five-member bench under the Practice and Procedure Act.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah remarked that while the present case was being heard in appeal under Article 185 of the Constitution, the present case was not filed under Article 184/3.

Justice Mansoor also stated: “Now a decision has to be taken on the admissibility of the appeals, once the admissibility is decided then the larger bench will also look into the matter”.

Arguments of Advocate Faisal Siddiqui

Along with this, advocate Faisal Siddiqui, the lawyer of the SIC, started the arguments and said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) independent winning MNA’s joined the SIC, upon which Justice Mansoor Ali Shah inquired if seven candidates are still part of the National Assembly in independent status.

Justice Athar Manullah asked whether PTI is a registered political party.

Lawyer Faisal Siddiqui took the position that PTI is a registered political party, on which Justice Mansoor remarked that it is a registered political party only it did not participate in the election.

Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar inquired that in how many days, independent members have to join a party. On which lawyer Faisal replied that independent members of the National Assembly have to join a political party within three days.

Justice Athar Minullah inquired that if a political party does not have an election symbol, will its candidates lose the right to represent?

Faisal Siddiqui told the court that a political party can become a parliamentary party by participating in the elections, otherwise a party may not participate in the elections and the members who won as independent join the party.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah asked that under what formula is the distribution of reserved seats among political parties take place? Will the political party take reserved seats according to the number of seats won or can it take more?

Faisal Siddiqui said that no political party can take reserved seats more than its proportion.

Protect of public mandate

During the hearing, Justice Athar Minullah said that a political party can get reserved seats in proportion to the number of seats won.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah stated that where it is written in the law that the remaining seats will be distributed among the same political parties, we have to protect the public mandate, as it is the real problem.

Justice Athar Minullah inquired where it is written in the law that a political party cannot contest an election if it does not receive an election symbol.

Lawyer Salman Akram Raja said: “I had gone to the court with this question before the election,” on which Justice Athar replied that it is certain that the number of seats represented by the party will get reserved seats.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah remarked that how is it possible that someone's mandate is given to someone else?

Justice Athar Manullah added that it happened for the first time that a major political party was deprived of the electoral symbol.

Later, the Supreme Court summoned the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) officials immediately along with the records and adjourned the hearing of the case till 11:30am.

When the hearing resumed after a break, the Supreme Court of Pakistan suspended the decision of the Peshawar High Court.