ISLAMABAD: Issuing yet another apparently controversial decision that has stirred a fresh controversy - after being faced with serious allegations of foul play in the recent general polls - the electoral entity has rejected the petition for the allocation of reserved seats in the Assemblies to Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) that was joined by the PTI-backed newly elected members of the Assemblies in a bid to secure the reserved seats in the aftermath of the denial of electoral symbol to Imran Khan’s political party.
“The Commission is of the view that in light of clear provisions of Article 51(6) of the Constitution read with Section 104 of the Elections Act 2017 and Rule 92 and 94 of the Election Rules 2017, SIC is not entitled to claim for the quota for reserved seats for women and non-Muslims due to having non curable legal defects and violation of mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats which is the requirement of law,” stated a verdict issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the case related to the allocation of reserved seats to SIC.
The verdict, dated March 1, but issued Monday, is authored by five-member ECP bench comprising Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, and Members; Nisar Ahmed Durrani, Shah Muhammad Jatoi, Babar Hassan Bharwana and Ikramullah Khan.
The seats in the National Assembly shall not remain vacant and will be allocated by proportional representation process of political parties on the basis of seats won by political parties, the 22-page verdict stated.
The verdict contained a dissenting note from Bharwana, the bench member, who agreed that the reserved seats could not be allocated to SIC but disagreed with the allocation of seats by way of proportional representation to the other political parties. “In my opinion, Article 51(6-d) and Article 106(3-c) of the Constitution clearly state that reserved seats will be allocated to the political parties on the basis of total number of general seats secured by each political party from the province concerned in the National Assembly or such reserved seats secured by each political party in the Provincial Assembly. Hence, these seats shall remain vacant till the time any such amendment in Article 51 and 106 of the Constitution is made by the Parliament,” he wrote in the dissenting note.
In the aftermath of the February 8 general elections, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and SIC forged an alliance that allowed the PTI-backed candidates to join the SIC in a bid to get the relevant seats reserved for women and minorities in NA as well as Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh Assemblies.
The number of reserved seats in NA is 70; 60 for women and 10 for non-Muslims. The ECP notified 38 out of 60 women seats in PA and the poll body’s decision whether to allot the remaining 22 seats to SIC remained pending.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
Comments
Comments are closed.