ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court of Pakistan has clarified again that changes to the election laws made by the government could not reverse its verdict in PTI reserved seats case.
Supreme Court of Pakistan’s 8-member bench issued a clarification regarding PTI reserved seats case and made it clear that amendments in Election Act cannot suspend the decision of the apex court.
The court issued clarification for the second time on the request of the Election Commission of Pakistan which had told the court that commission cannot implement its orders because the government has amended the section on which SC had announced the decision.
The ruling was reaffirmed in a detailed judgment released last month. “ECP is bound to implement Supreme Court decisions,” stated the judges in today’s clarification.
The judges contended that SC decision of July 12 cannot be made ineffective by amending the Election Act.
The development comes hours after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) legal team had advised to restore the lawmakers who were suspended after the Supreme Court landmark verdict on the reserved seats.
The majority judges clarified that ECP was bound to follow orders of the court as amendments in Election Act were announced after the decision.
“Since both the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the PTI have sought a second clarification, we only wish to clarify and reiterate the well-established interpretation of the law,” said the clarification.
According to the majority judges, the amendments made to the Election Act do not allow the retroactive application of our decision.
On July 12, a 13-judge full bench of the apex court had declared that the opposition party PTI was eligible to receive reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the national and provincial assemblies.
Earlier, Election Commission told the court that the summary of the SC judgment was based on the law which has been amended by the government. ECP told the bench that sections 66 and 104 of the Election Act 2017 were amended. ECP told the court that section 104A was added to the Election Act 2017.
The Supreme Court had also declared the PTI a parliamentary party. The majority judgement explained that 39 out of the 80 MNAs, shown by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as PTI candidates, belonged to the party. The rest of the 41 independents would have to file duly signed and notarised statements before the commission within 15 days, explaining that they contested the February 8 general elections as a candidate of a particular political party.
The ECP had subsequently finally decided to implement the Supreme Court decision. Instructions were issued to the ECP’s legal team to identify obstacles in the implementation of the judgement so that further guidance could be sought from the top court. The ECP had later submitted its clarification request to the top court.
The apex court’s clarification said: “Since ECP and PTI both have asked for a second clarification, we want to simply clarify that the effect of the amendment made in the Elections Act cannot undo our judgment with retrospective effect.”
The court further said: “The amendments made in the Elections Act 2017 after the release of short order will have no bearing and the commission is bound to implement the judgment passed by the apex court, in its letter and spirit, without seeking any further clarification.” The court said it had already issued a clarification before releasing its detailed reasons for the July 12 verdict, adding that the first clarification was also merged into the detailed order.
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