A full bench of the Supreme Court adjourned on Monday the hearing of the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) plea against the denial of reserved seats in assemblies for women and minorities.

A 13-member bench — comprising Justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Munib Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Ayesha Malik, Athar Minallah, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Shahid Waheed, Irfan Saadat Khan and Naeem Akhtar Afghan had resumed hearing the case today.

Advocates Salman Akram Raja appeared as the SIC counsel while Faisal Siddiqi was present on behalf of the party’s female candidates.

Meanwhile Sikandar Bashir Momand appeared as the ECP lawyer.

SIC in assemblies: Reserved seats reallocation issue still remains unresolved

The SIC is the new home to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed independent candidates. The ruling coalition has 224 seats in NA, which gives it a two-third majority in 336-seat NA. As many as 21 of the 25 SIC reserved seats were allotted to ruling coalition in a highly controversial decision issued by ECP this March that attracted strong public backlash.

The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) got 16 of SIC reserved seats and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) got five of those seats.

If these seats are reallocated to SIC, the ruling coalition’s strength would be reduced to 203 seats, depriving it of two-third majority in NA.

In March, a five-member bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja had rejected the SIC’s petition seeking the allocation of reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies.

The ECP announced the verdict with a 4-1 majority, saying the SIC was not entitled to reserved seats.

In its decision, the electoral body said the SIC is not entitled to claim quota for reserved seats due to having “non-curable legal defects and violation of a mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats which is the requirement of the law”.

“The seats in the National Assembly shall not remain vacant and will be allotted by proportional representation process of political parties based on seats won by political parties,” the order said.