ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has accepted PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) plea against the high court’s ruling and suspended the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) verdict on reserved seat.
Earlier, The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) dismissed the party’s appeal, denying it access to reserved seats.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah remarked, ‘We are considering the SIC’s appeals against the PHC verdict,’ questioning the legality behind allocating seats to other parties.”
A three-member bench led by Justice Shah, accompanied by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah, reviewed the SIC’s plea filed through Advocate Faisal Siddiqui last month.
The Supreme Court (SC), barring members who have sworn in on reserved seats from legislative voting, scheduled daily hearings from June 3.
The court highlighted that the issue primarily revolves around additional reserved seats granted to political parties later on.
In March, a five-member bench of the PHC, chaired by Chief Justice Ibrahim Khan and including Justices Ishtiaq Ibrahim, Ijaz Anwar, Arshad Ali, and Shakeel Ahmad, rejected the SIC’s petition against the ECP’s decision to deny it reserved seats.
The ECP determined the SIC ineligible for reserved seats designated for women and minorities due to procedural and legal flaws, along with violations of constitutional provisions.
While turning down SIC’s plea, the ECP accepted applications from opposing parties and decided to fill National Assembly seats through proportional representation based on each party’s electoral success.
In response, the SIC appealed to the SC last month, urging the apex court to allocate the party its entitled 67 women and 11 minority seats in the National and provincial assemblies, and overturn the PHC ruling.
