EDITORIAL: The eagerly-awaited verdict of the 13-member Supreme Court bench has declared the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) eligible for the 77 reserved seats for minorities and women, while rendering the Peshawar High Court’s decision to deprive the party of its share of these seats as “null and void.”
It may be recalled that after a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa had denied the PTI its iconic election symbol ‘bat’, its candidates had contested the February 8 general elections as independent candidates with a slew of different electoral symbols, but later joined the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) to maintain its identity as a political entity, and emerged as the single largest party in the National Assembly.
Yet the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) allotted its share of reserved seats to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition. A day ago, the court had reserved its decision on the matter after closing the hearing on a set of appeals moved by SIC against the denial of reserved seats for women and non-Muslims to it by the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and the ECP.
During the case proceedings, the CJP had acknowledged that the ECP had misinterpreted the court’s earlier order to take away the election symbol from the PTI, though he had raised some technical objections about the party having reserved seats.
The eight to five judgement announced in a short order by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah notes that the lack or denial of an election symbol does not in any manner affect the constitutional and legal rights of a political party to participate in an election (whether general or bye) and to field candidates, and the Commission is under a constitutional duty to act, and construe and apply all statutory provisions accordingly.
Countering the stance taken by the ECP, asserts the decision, within the meaning of Article 51 of the Constitution the PTI “was and is a political party”, which secured or won general seats in the National and Provincial Assemblies in the general elections.
As per the majority verdict delivered by Justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Munib Akhtar, Mohammad Ali Mahar, Ayesha A. Malik, Athar Minallah, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Shahid Waheed and Irfan Saadat, the PTI is to file, within 15 working days of the court order, its lists of candidates for the reserved seats, and out of them the ECP is to notify the number proportionate to the general seats secured by the PTI.
The same is applicable to provincial assemblies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Notably, the latter was not duly represented in the election of the President, Prime Minister and Senate Chairman because of the reserves seats dispute.
Democratic norms, even common sense, suggested that the said seats should go to the party for which the people voted. Unfortunately, the major political parties forming the ruling coalition, purportedly in cahoots with the ECP, tried to ride roughshod on their right by seeking those seats for themselves so as to attain a two-thirds majority and make constitutional amendments to suit their purposes, as and when needed.
In fact, while contesting the present case, the government had made known its intention to make an amendment to extend the Supreme Court judges’ retirement age from 65 to 68, which, in the current situation, could have significant implications for the judicial process.
Democracy, after all, is about competition among political players; it’s not about use of fair means or foul for the achievement of unethical objectives. The apex court ‘sjudgement has clearly held the Election Commission of Pakistan to account for playing a role that must have hampered people’s trust in democracy. Needless to say, the election watchdog is always required to preserve and protect its independence, autonomy and fearlessness in an effective and meaningful manner.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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