CJP Isa calls for early scheduling of review petition on reserved seats

The minutes of the three-judge Practice and Procedure Committee meeting published on Saturday showed that Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa asked the committee to urgently schedule a hearing on the review petition against the reserved seat case, Aaj News reported.

According to the minutes of the meeting, two other members, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Munib Akhtar, opposed CJP’s reasoning, saying that most of the judges of the 13-member bench were on holiday and a detailed order of the case was awaited.

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“It would be unjust and unfair if the review petitions against the Supreme Court’s reserved seats case ruling were not fixed urgently,” CJP Isa was quoted as highlighting in the minutes of the meeting.

“The order under review necessitated reopening of the court even if it required cancellation of vacations.”

Minutes of the committee meeting were released on Saturday.

The committee comprising the three senior SC judges was formed under the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023.

The development comes days after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) filed a review petition in the Supreme Court (SC), asking the apex court to review its decision to allocate reserved seats to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

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According to the petition filed in the apex court, the court should suspend its 12th July 2024 ruling regarding the reserved seat case of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) until the final decision on the review petition is reached.

An early hearing had been requested in the petition.

Win for PTI as SC declares party eligible for reserved seats

The top court last week declared former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan PTI party eligible for seats reserved for women and minorities, asking the party to submit the list of candidates in fifteen days.

The 13-member SC bench annulled the Peshawar High Court’s previous order as unconstitutional. The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) had demanded that 77 seats for women and minorities, originally allotted to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition be reallocated to the PTI-backed party.

After the court’s decision, the ruling coalition still has well over 200 members of the 336-member lower house of parliament.