Pakistan

Elections Act amendment cannot revoke judgement on reserved seats: SC

Judges remark ECP bound to implement judgement passed by SC without seeking any further clarification

Published 9 months ago on Oct 18th 2024, 9:42 pm

By Web Desk

Elections Act amendment cannot revoke judgement on reserved seats: SC

Islamabad: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday reiterated that parliament's amendment to the Elections Act does not have a retrospective effect and it could not undo the top court's judgment in the reserved seats case.

Eight judges, who announced the verdict in reserved seats, issued explanations.

On July 12, a 13-judge full bench of the apex court had declared that the opposition PTI was eligible to receive reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the national and provincial assemblies, dealing a major setback to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition and potentially making the PTI the single largest party in both houses of Parliament.

In a two-page clarification, the court said, “Since the Commission and PTI both have asked for a second clarification, we want to simply clarify and reiterate the well-settled exposition of law that the effect of the amendment made in the Elections Act cannot undo our judgment with retrospective effect.

The Court granted the relief in the Short Order to enforce the right of the electorate through political parties to have proportional representation in the reserved seats under paragraphs (d) and (e) of clause (6) of Article 51 and paragraph (c) of clause (3) of Article 106 of the Constitution, therefore, the amendments made in the Elections Act after the release of our Short Order will have no bearing and the Commission is bound to implement the judgment passed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, in its letter and spirit, without seeking any further clarification.”

It said, “Office is directed to send this clarification to the Commission and the representative of PTI who filed the application for clarification and also upload this clarification on the Supreme Court website. Both the Civil Misc. Applications are disposed of accordingly.”