On Monday, the Supreme Court intervened by suspending the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) order allocating reserved seats to other parties following their propositional representations.
A three-judge bench, led by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, granted leave to appeal and adjourned the matter until June 3. During the hearing earlier today, Justice Shah summoned the attorney general for Pakistan (AGP) and an ECP representative to conduct the proceedings of the reserved seats case.
Justice Shah emphasized the fundamental principle of democracy and the Constitution: the people’s mandate, which should be duly reflected in the parliament. “A majority can’t be negated on technical grounds,” the court asserted. The bench questioned whether the Constitution or the Election Act mandated the reallocation of reserved seats to parties such as the PML-N, PC, etc.
Justice Athar Minallah noted that if a political party fails to obtain an election symbol, its voters would be disenfranchised. Additional Attorney General Chaudhry Amir Rehman argued that the matter required “constitutional interpretation” and suggested that a larger bench be allocated for adjudication. However, he was informed that the hearing is at the “leave granting stage”.
The bench further indicated that requiring a larger bench would be deliberated upon after the initial hearing. Meanwhile, the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), comprising PTI-backed lawmakers, challenged the PHC’s March 14 order that deprived the party of reserved seats. The PHC, through its verdict, dashed PTI’s hopes of obtaining reserved seats by dismissing SIC’s petition against ECP’s ruling denying reserved seats to the party.
On March 4, the ECP accepted applications from opposing parties and decided that seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies would not remain vacant but would be allocated through a proportional representation process based on seats won by political parties.
