The Supreme Court (SC) declared on Friday former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party eligible for seats reserved for women and minorities.
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, which were originally allotted to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition be reallocated to the PTI-backed party.
The ruling coalition still has well over 200 members of the 336-member lower house of parliament. Imran’s party strength stood at 84 before the decision and is now expected to rise to over 100.
The SIC is the new home to PTI-backed independent candidates. The PTI candidates were forced to contest elections as independents after the SC upheld the ECP’s decision, deeming its intra-party polls “unconstitutional” and revoked its claim on the iconic electoral symbol.
In a bid to grab the seats reserved for women and minorities, PTI declared that the party-backed winning candidates in the February 8 elections would join the minority SIC in the National Assembly as well as in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
In Pakistan, parties are allocated 70 reserved seats - 60 for women, and 10 for non-Muslims - in proportion to the number of seats they win. This completes the National Assembly’s total strength of 336 seats.
The ruling coalition has 224 seats in the National Assembly, which gives it a two-thirds majority. As many as 21 of the 25 SIC reserved seats were allotted to the ruling coalition.
PTI-backed candidates to join Sunni Ittehad Council
The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) got 16 of the SIC reserved seats and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) got five of those seats. The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) was given four.
If these seats are reallocated, the ruling coalition’s strength would be reduced to 203 seats.
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.
Today, the decision, backed by eight judges, was announced by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah.
“The withdrawal of election symbol cannot disqualify a political party from elections. The PTI was and is a political party,” the court said.
The judgment further said that the withdrawal of an election symbol cannot disqualify a political party from participating in the elections.
A full court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, on July 09, upon the completion of arguments of the SIC and PTI lawyers against the PHC’s verdict on reserved seats of women and non-Muslims had reserved the judgment.
The full court on Wednesday and Thursday held meetings and deliberated upon the decision, and the verdict was put off till Friday.
Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan, the counsels of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Sikandar Bashir Mohmand, and Makhdoom Ali Khan, who represented affected candidates, elected on reserved seats, argued that the SIC was no longer entitled to the reserved seats as it had neither contested general elections nor won any seats.
PTI reacts
Following the SC verdict, PTI’s official X account demanded the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja for violating the Constitution of Pakistan.
Party spokesman Raoof Hassan lauded the SC for “breaking the barriers of intimidation”.
“This is only the beginning of a long haul till we reach the final destination when Imran Khan shall take over as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Soon, very soon.”
In a post on X, PTI said nomination papers of the party members were rejected, the election symbol was taken, and the reserved seats were allocated to other parties.
“The ECP must be dissolved and should be held accountable for these unconstitutional measures against PTI,” the post read.
Former human rights minister Shireen Mazari also celebrated the verdict.
“Justice served, but all the minority opinions incl [sic] the one CJP read out sounded confused at best unlike the clarity of the majority 8 mbr [sic] order!” she wrote on X.
Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar said the apex court’s judgment poses no challenge to the government.
Addressing a news conference in Islamabad after the development, he said the ruling coalition has a clear majority both in the National and Punjab Assemblies.
The law minister said PTI was neither a party in the case nor had sought relief. He said it was the SIC which had moved the court for the reserved seats.
JUI-F welcomes SC decision
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) has welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to declare PTI eligible for reserved seats and announced that it would not go into review petition.
Addressing a press conference on Friday, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman also expressed solidarity with PTI over their victory, saying aggrieved parties had the right to go into review.