Reserved seats case: ECP calls meeting to take stock of post-SC verdict situation

ISLAMABAD: The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja has convened a meeting of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) officials at 11:00 a.m on Thursday to discuss the mode of implementing the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s recent judgment in which it ordered the allotment of reserved seats to the PTI.

The meeting will be held on July 18 to discuss the options to implement the SC’s verdict in SIC reserved seats.

Sources said that the ECP secretary and Legal Wings heads would brief the meeting about the apex court’s decision.

While giving the decision on the petition filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), seeking reserved seats, the SC had last Friday declared that it was the PTI, and not the SIC, which was entitled to the seats reserved for women and minorities in the assemblies, thus dealing a major blow to the PML-led coalition government at Center.

A 13-member bench of the top court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, ruled that the PTI is eligible for the allocation of reserved seats, dealing a major setback to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah announced the 8-5 majority verdict, setting aside the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) order wherein it had upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision denying the reserved seats to the SIC.

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Jamal Mandokhail, Justice Naeem Afghan, Justice Yahya Afridi, and Justice Ameenuddin Khan opposed the majority decision.