LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday referred petitions of Suni Ittehad Council (SIC) and others against the denial of reserved seats to SIC in the assemblies.

Earlier, a law officer for the Punjab government told the court that the reply was ready for the signature of the Advocate General of Punjab, who was busy before the Supreme Court.

A law officer representing the federation sought two weeks time to submit the reply.

The court noted that a reasonable time had already been granted in this case.

The court, therefore, directed the federal government to file reply to the petition of the SIC and the connected petitions positively before the next hearing.

The counsel of SIC contended that similar petitions filed before the Sindh and Peshawar high courts were heard by larger benches, therefore, the petitions before the LHC should also be heard by a larger bench.

The court inclining with the counsel referred the petition to the Chief Justice as some questions of public importance in relation to interpretation of the constitutional provisions as well as vires of section 104 of the Elections Act, 2017 involved in the matter.

The petitioner Chairman SIC Sahibzada Hamid Raza contended that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) misconstrued and misapplied the provisions of Articles 51 and 106 of the Constitution as well as Section 104 of the Elections Act, 2017.

He said the entire emphasis of the ECP was on the election schedule and date fixed for submitting the priority list for reserved seats.

The petitioner argued that the SIC was a duly enlisted political party and had been allocated an electoral symbol. Therefore, the petitioner said the SIC was entitled to reserved seats equal to the number of independent candidates who joined it.

The petitioner, therefore, asked the court to set aside the ECP’s decision and order it to allocate reserved seats to the SIC based on its strength in the National Assembly.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024